Painted Ghouls
by hootyhoot
Summary: Athena, a simple fire type who lived a not so simple life, was a first-hand witness to an apocalypse of 'ghoul' pokémon. Ghouls were vicious, and did everything they could to rid the world of the impure- even if it meant harming those they cared about.
1. Chapter 1

Pokémon is owned by Nintendo/Game Freak. I only own the written personalities of each character.

* * *

The temperature was blistering, but Mary did not mind. Her feet were a blur as she scurried ahead, her vision trained on the land ahead of her. The song of taillows in the branches above made their way into her ear slits, but they were drowned away by a combusken rushing after her.

"Come back here!" he called, almost tripping over his own feet as he chased after the significantly younger torchic.

Instead of following his commands, the chick pokémon swerved to the right, narrowly missing an ember fired by her brother. Without a clear target to hit, the flames collided with a bush, consequently setting it on fire.

"Hey, you know Dad's going to yell at us for that!" she said, ceasing to a stop as she stared at her brother, panting for breath.

The flames were pitifully small and weak, but she knew not to test their father's anger. She had seen him angry before, and it was not a pleasant sight. The combusken skidded to a halt, looked at the blazing bush, then back to the torchic.

"I doubt he'd get that mad, Mary," he casually responded, kicking a pile of dirt toward the bush. The flames instantly died out.

Mary snorted. Her brother, Zachary, was such an arrogant yet nonchalant pokémon, despite how much their father pushed them around. Zachary explained to her that before she hatched out of her egg, their mother and father were both used by humans for unexplained reasons. Ever since their escape, their father, Zeke, had been persistent on pushing them into training sessions and constant spars.

Despite how much the two men of the family were battle-ready and energized, Mary had never found interest in battles. If anything, she found them frightening, and scary. Pokémon could easily get killed in battles, so what was the point of them? Surely there was a way to live life without battling every single moment?

Blinking her beady eyes, Mary was about to open her beak to speak, but the sound of approaching footsteps crunching against twigs and leaves alike interrupted her abruptly. Turning around, she gulped at the sight of her cross father, glaring at the bush.

"Who did that?" he spat, motioning toward the plant.

The fires on the bush had already been extinguished, and managed to not spread to other plants, yet he still seemed to be in a rage. Backing away from her father, Mary glanced at Zachary, her eyes widened as he crossed his lengthy arms. Zeke groaned, flames dissipating out of his nostrils.

"Zachary," he mumbled, rubbing his feathery cranium with his talons. "That fire could've easily attract pokémon, or worse, humans."

The combusken stepped forward. "We can easily fight both of those things off," he coolly responded, shrugging his shoulders idly. Mary watched, deciding not to say a word. She didn't like the way the conversation was going. "We're strong enough."

Zeke blinked, dropping his glare onto Mary. Instinctively, she flinched, taking a small step back from her father. "Mary isn't," the blaziken spat, heaving a disappointed sigh. She blinked, lowering her head just a bit. He wasn't wrong.

The combusken only casted a sideways glance down at her, before perking up. "Doesn't she have speed boost?" he rhetorically asked, looking back up at his father. "She can just run or hide or something while we drive the-"

"Speed boost doesn't do anything!" Zeke snapped, clenching his gray fists tightly as he glared daggers at his son. "Your mother had Speed Boost, and she got captured!"

Zachary flinched, dropping his vision to the ground in an instant. Mary, too, flinched. She backed away tentatively as a silence stretched between the three. To break the silence, Zeke released a frustrated growl. Stalking away from the two siblings, he grouchily spat out, "Train."

Once he had left the scene, Mary looked up at Zachary, puffing out of her feathers slightly. It was true that her mother had speed boost; how else would it have been passed down to the torchic? The only problem with the ability was that she hardly battled, so it wasn't like she could put it into good use. For all she knew, it was completely useless.

"C'mon," Zachary muttered, turning to face her. The outburst from his father seemed to place him in a sour mood. "We have to train, like Dad said." The chick pokémon turned to face her brother, her orange and yellow feathers still fluffed out. Such a statement did not seem appealing to her.

"Dad's just being grumpy, as always," she protested, cocking her head at an acute angle. "I don't want to train." The young fowl pokémon in front of her groaned, his shoulders sagging as he did so.

"Honestly, I swear you're the reason why he always yells at us," he moaned, scratching his cream head with his long talons. Glancing toward the direction where Zeke had left, he rolled his eyes, before dragging his attention back onto his younger sister. Mary leaned forward expectantly. "I'm going to go fight some real pokémon. I guess you can just train here or something."

After that, the combusken left, heading off toward the opposite direction their father had went. The tiny fire type huffed flapping her useless wings as she looked around. As expected of her, she didn't feel like training, but she also didn't want to just stand there. Heading off in the opposite direction of both her brother and father, she gazed off toward the forest that bordered her family's territory.

Zeke had always warned her not to enter there, for many trainers lurked around in the forest. She had also been warned that her species was extremely rare, so any trainer would be eager to get their hands on a torchic or the evolved forms. Due to that, she had always held a strong dislike toward the human race. She never wanted to be near one of them.

However, she had never been into the forest. Zeke and even Zachary had been in there several times, and every time they returned from their trip, they brought back delicious berries to eat. Not only that, but Zachary also explained that their father over-exaggerated the forest and the dangerous situations it may or may not contain. Plus, Mary had never heard of any human encounters from them, so she guessed that it must be safer than what the blaziken had described.

Making sure the two males weren't around her, she eyed the surrounding vicinity, before taking off toward the woods, tripping a bit on the way. Once she got past the first few trees, she slowed down to a mere walk, cautiously strolling deeper and deeper into the forest. It was certainly darker than she figured it would be, but there were gaps and holes in the canopy of leaves that loomed high above her. They provided just enough light for her to see, however the scenery was daunting nonetheless.

Eyeing a berry bush, Mary eagerly dashed toward it, tripping to a halt as she roughly landed in front of it. Scrambling onto her feet, she stood on her tip-toes, studying the contents of the plant.

 _I would rather have cheri berries,_ she thought, eyeing the array of oran berries.

Standing on her tip-toes, she craned her neck as far as she could, reaching for a plump treat. The rustling of leaves nearby had caused her to hesitate slightly, but the berry was too succulent to ignore. Opening her beak, she was about to grab hold of the bottom of the berry, but more shuffling leaves could be heard.

"Hello!" a partially squeaky, masculine voice greeted, causing Mary to squeak and fall backwards, thus landing on her back. "Sorry!" the voice squeaked, and soon enough, a blue pokémon she had never seen before loomed over her, its face beaming with nothing but joy.

"Hello, I'm Damien!" the pokémon spoke, hopping up and down repeatedly. "I've never seen a fire type around here! Oh boy, oh boy! What's your name?" When Mary was back on her feet, she froze, watching him bounce around her, his tail happily wagging.

"Mary," she said, eyes narrowed just a tad as Damien halted, a smile plastered on his lips. _What's up with his appearance?_

Not only was he a peculiar shade of blue, but he had a fin on his head, and also a fin for a tail. Three orange spikes protruded out of each cheek, which seemed a little odd to her. He stuck out too easily for such a place to live in. Then again, her colors also clashed with the foliage of the forest.

It didn't take long for Damien to continue his rambling, for in an instant was he bouncing around her once more. "I think you're a torchic!" he squeaked happily. Mary struggled to keep her vision placed on him the entire time- he was a hopping mess. "I'm what humans call a mudkip! I've heard that torchics are rare! Do you have a family? I have a trainer! Do you have a trainer?"

Mary stumbled away from the mudkip as soon as she could, fluffing out her feathers. She could have sworn that pokémon of his kind were water types. Not only did the appearance give it away, but the species name did as well. Drowning out Damien's rambling, which amazingly continued despite her obviously not paying attention to it, she tried to process the information he spat out in her head.

 _He has a trainer?_ she mentally repeated, shocked. She nervously took a quick scan of the surrounding vicinity, but no human was around.

"W-Where's your trainer?" she questioned, causing him to stop his rambling fit. He began to hop up and down, as if he was excited to share his trainer's whereabouts. _Please don't tell me they're-_

"May is doing something right now," he explained, continuing his bouncy behaviors as he interrupted her thoughts. "Usually when she does stuff like that she lets me wander around! Of course, I don't mind, because I get to make more friends!" The mudkip then launched himself at Mary, pinning her to the forest floor. "Like you!"

The torchic let out a high-pitched squeal in surprise, struggling under his grasp. The mud fish pokémon seemed to have gotten the message, for he hopped off of her swiftly, a slightly saddened look on his features. Bounding onto her feet, Mary dashed away from Damien, leaving him behind as she made a beeline straight for her nest.

"Come back tomorrow!" he called, sounding a bit hurt.

With the final sentence lodged in her mind, the fire type hopped out of the forest and toward her home, sagging slightly when she noticed both her father and brother already at their nests. Slowing to a stop, she desperately panted for breath as she glanced up at her relatives, who didn't even bother to acknowledge her, for they appeared to be in the middle of a conversation.

"So you mean to tell me," Zeke said, his arms crossed as he stared down at his son, "you saw two water types? And they were talking about murdering nearby pokémon?"

Mary gulped. Were one of the water types Damien? That couldn't be possible, though. Damien didn't mention anything about murder. Plus, he was with her. Expectantly, she brought her attention onto her brother.

Zachary nodded frantically, his lightly-colored eyes widened. "Y-yeah!" he said, almost looking as if he was about to explode. "They want this land! I don't know why, though.. Something about ghouls.. I-I ran away before they could notice me.."

Zeke heaved a hefty sigh, rubbing his cranium silently. He didn't seem too convinced of his son's exclamation. "Tell me, were they swimming in a lake?"

"No, but-"

"Then how are they alive?"

Zachary blinked, growing annoyed. "They live on land!" he exclaimed, flapping his arms wildly. "So many water types already do!" Mary blinked. Her brother was right- Damien could walk on land, after all.

"What pokémon were they?" the blaziken asked, his tone a little more hardened and less tired. Zachary lowered his gaze, trying to recollect what he saw.

"A.. sharpedo and a milotic."

Sudden weariness took over Mary. She didn't bother to stick around, for she sauntered away from the ongoing conversation, and straight toward her nest. Damien's last sentence, and the new threat of a murderous duo of water types, whirled around in her brain, causing her to grow even more tired.

Entering the bush that her nest was hidden inside, she perched onto the stack of leaves and twigs that she slept on every night. Should the two water types come over, Zeke and Zachary could be capable of defeating them easily. They were strong, after all. Nodding to herself for reassurance, the fire type released a yawn.

Damien was still in her mind, however. Despite him being rather quirky and awkward, she figured that she would soon grow to enjoy his company. It wasn't every day she got to meet a friendly pokémon outside of her family.

 _A new friendship does sound promising,_ she silently concluded. _I just can't tell Dad about him, that's all..._ With yet another yawn, Mary soon fell asleep, eager to go and greet the mudkip later.


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING: violence**

* * *

Emitting a muffled yawn, Mary opened her eyes and began to slowly look around. The conversation about the sharpedo and milotic was fading away from her mind, yet nevertheless still placed firmly in her brain. Of course, she knew she shouldn't worry- Zeke and Zachary could easily defeat them, should the water types come. Shaking her head to clear her scattered thoughts, she drowsily stepped outside, her steps weary and slow.

As usual, Zachary was training, throwing swift punches and kicks at a log that was standing upright thanks to a small stump. Blinking her eyes, Mary looked around for her father. He was nowhere to be seen.

 _Probably left to go get food,_ she tiredly guessed, twisting her head to preen her feathers. _I hope he brings back cheri berries._ Making sure Zachary wasn't looking, Mary began to walk toward the direction of the large forest, her feet slowly but surely picking up the pace the farther she went. _I wish I could tell them about Damien._

Despite knowing the fact that she'd get scolded by her father and brother, she felt bad for not telling them about her new friend. Sure, he was a water type, but at least he was friendly. Sliding to a halt near the berry bush where she met the mudkip, Mary looked around, hoping to catch sight of the strange male.

"Hello?" she called out with a shaky voice, blinking. "Is anyone here?" Oh, if Zachary was nearby, he'd slap her for pulling such a risk.

As if he was waiting for this moment to occur, Damien abruptly hopped out of the berry bush, causing the fire type to let out a squeak. "Hiya, Mary!" he excitedly greeted with an energetic smile, stepping out of the bush. "To be honest, I thought you ditched me because I have a trainer! Trust me, May isn't horrible!"

Mary silently nodded, but in all honesty, she couldn't care less about this so-called May. She was a human, and humans were not meant to be trusted. She wasn't sure how Damien managed to live with one.

"I'm bored," Damien said, stretching out his front limbs. "Wanna play a game? I know a few games! Let's play tag!" He paused for a bit, as if he was waiting for Mary to respond. She did not respond, and instead she chose to stare blankly at him. Growing a bit impatient, he tapped her head with one of his paws. "Tag!" he squeaked, before dashing away. The torchic hesitated, unsure of what just happened.

 _What even is tag?_ she silently questioned. The mudkip was long gone by now- should she be chasing him? _I guess so._

With a little hop, she sped off toward where she assumed the water type went, dashing into unfamiliar territory as she did so. A feeling of dread latched onto her as her vision flickered left to right. The setting was growing eerie, and the usual, glowing sunshine of the forest she was used to was covered by the canopy above. The only sound she heard was the drumming of her feet against the dirt.

Slowing to a stop after a rather short sprint, she glanced around at the possible areas where the mudkip possibly headed to. Deciding to bounce toward her left, she carried herself over to a small log, which happened to be tall enough to fit perhaps two pokémon. Peering inside, she attempted to make out any shapes inside the log.

 _He's not in there._

Growing more desperate to find him, she brought her head away from the log. Shaking her head with a heavy sigh, Mary continued to search for the mudkip, dashing toward the path ahead of her. It didn't take too long to find him. He was sitting by himself, a bored expression plastered on his features. As he caught sight of the torchic, he perked up, a smile laced on his lips.

"Took you long enough!" he called, bouncing toward her. As he abruptly halted in front of her, he cracked a joyful grin.

"What do I do now..?" Mary asked, looking up at the male with short breaths. Damien began to hop up and down, and he released a light giggle as he did so.

"You touch me and say 'tag'!" he gleefully stated, his hopping quickened. "C'mon, do it!"

Mary nodded, brushing the tip of her yellow wing against him. "Tag," she sighed, still a little out of breath. With that, Damien squeaked, and immediately touched her back with his paw.

"Tag!" he beamed. As soon as he said that, a shrill and familiar caw sounded from the trees north of them. With widened eyes, the male casted a sideways glance toward Mary, backing away. "Gotta go!" Without any hesitation, the male dashed away from the torchic.

Mary blinked. That caw sounded like her father's. Why would he be in the forest? _Shouldn't he be back near the nest?_

She looked up toward the sky, peering through the miniscule gaps in the canopy. It was around midday, he would definitely be near the nest by now. A little worried, the torchic scampered toward where she assumed the caw came from.

Her feet pattering on the ground, the torchic swore she heard another roar from her father and, with a silent chirp, she jumped into a bush, hiding herself. Just as she expected, she saw her father's feet rush past the bush, but something seemed odd about the way he ran. It was as if he was limping. Mary was about to go and give chase, but soon a blue blur sprinted past the bush, a little too fast for her to assume what it was. A spray of water pelted against the leaves, but thankfully, she was shielded from the drops.

Crouching now in fear, the chick pokémon smelled the foul, metallic tang of blood, and hesitantly she poked her head out of the bush. She saw her father's footprint, with a small puddle of blood by it. The land surrounding it was damp, but that did not concern her.

 _Dad's been hurt!_ Walking out of the shrubbery, thus fully exposing herself, she looked around for her father, her entire frame trembling. "Dad?" she tentatively chirped, her voice cracking from fear. Silence greeted her. Taking a few steps, she once again called out, "Da-"

Soon, however, her search ended quickly. A blur of blue and gray tackled Mary, sending her rolling away from the bush. Her black eyes widened with fear, she looked at her useless wings. They were scratched from the impact, stained with tints of debris. Something had hit her, but what? Then, in an instant, a sudden realization hit her.

 _The water types!_

Scrambling to her feet, Mary tried to run away, but soon after did she feel teeth dig into her back. With a screech of pain, she felt her frail body get dragged away, slowly but painfully. Letting out a caw for help, she frantically struggled against the grasp, her back screaming in agony. A milotic rushed in front of her, its eyes flashing with malice as it glared down upon the frightened fire type.

Mary could've sworn she heard a snarl from the water type, and she felt the teeth dig deeper into her back as the milotic wrapped her tail around her neck. With each passing moment the grip got tighter. Suddenly, the teeth seemed to of latched off of her feathers, and with a barely audible curse, the milotic reluctantly let go of its grip on Mary and slithered away. Free from her two assaulters, she scurried out of the way, breathing rapidly in order to catch up on the amount of breath she missed.

Swirling around, she saw her brother clawing at a blue sharpedo, anger brightly shown in his eyes as each swipe broke the sharpedo's skin, resulting in a wound. The torchic stared in horror as the water type began to go from its blue hue to a dark gray, undergoing a strange transformation she had never witnessed before. Black goo began to leak from its mouth as it released a vicious snarl, fighting against the claws with angry snaps of its teeth.

A shadow fell over her. _Oh no, what now?_

Looking up, Mary saw her father looking down at her, clearly angered as he roughly scooped her into his talons. Tossing her into a bush, Zeke charged straight toward the sharpedo, but soon he was shot sideways by a swift slap of the milotic's tail. Falling down rather roughly, Zeke jumped to his feet rushed at the water pokémon, wrists flaring up with orange and yellow flames. With a snarl of anger, he slashed the creature with his sharp talons, knocking it backward. Blood poured out of its cranium, causing it to grit its teeth in pain momentarily.

The milotic, too, was beginning to shift to a monotone color. Black goo- which was similar to that of the sharpedo's- poured out her wound along with the blood. Zeke shuffled back a bit, his eyes widening slightly at the scene. It didn't take long for him to regain his composure, and charge at the water-type with blazing feet. Blaze kick. The move landed successfully, and with a growl, the milotic lashed out with an aqua jet.

Mary brought her widened eyes onto her brother, who was now being viciously bitten by the gray sharpedo. He attempted to scratch at its eyes, but missed horribly- the sharpedo was too quick. Without a moment's hesitation, it used its gray fin to lash at Zachary's throat. Mary closed her eyes, not daring to look at the scene.

A warm liquid splattered the ground, and the metallic scent of blood wafted around her. Opening her left eye just slightly, she couldn't help but stare at the sharpedo. It was now stained a bloody red from the fight. Eyes widening and beak dropping open with shock, Mary held back all of the vomit that was building up inside her. A deep, bleeding wound was etched across Zachary's neck. The sharpedo had killed her brother. She couldn't believe it. Zachary had been defeated. He was so strong, what happened? Had all of those days of constant training gone to waste?

A roar of anger sounded from her father. Quickly, Mary fixated her vision onto him. Zeke had slashed the milotic, and now was advancing toward the sharpedo. Glancing at the fallen water type, Mary felt faint as she saw the corpse of it. Its stomach was split open, with its blood pouring out of the wound. The goo laced all over it slinked its way into the dirt. Her father had managed to beat the milotic, surely he could beat the sharpedo in vengeance for Zachary?

Still in the bush, Mary turned her vision away, and watched as her father threw multiple fire punches at the sharpedo. It seemed as if each punch each was ineffective, for the opponent to not be affected by the attacks. Instead, it released a low snarl and, avoiding a swift punch, reached upward. Relying on the spray of water coming from its behind to propel it, it swiftly connected its teeth to the blaziken's head. Reluctantly, the chick pokémon helplessly watched as the sharpedo let go of Zeke as another fire punch connected to its face. However, it gave no time for the blaziken, for soon the gray creature shot a quick aqua jet forward, sending its opponent flying backward.

Landing by the milotic, Zeke attempted to quickly get up, but the sharpedo shot another aqua jet at him, pinning him back toward the ground. With a roar of triumph, it raced toward the struggling fire-and-fighting type. With malice gleaming in its red irises, it bit the neck of its opponent.

Mary began to cry as Zeke flailed around helplessly, trying to get the sharpedo off him, but his effort was no good. For soon did the bright light in his eyes began to fade, and he slowly ceased to a slow and painful stop. Resting his arms, he laid dead, a pool of blood forming around him.

 _No!_

He, like Zachary, had been defeated.


	3. Chapter 3

**WARNING: light violence**

 _No, no, no,_ Mary's mind sputtered, her widened eyes continuing to pour out tears as she stared at the limp corpse of her father. _He was so strong,_ _how was he defeated?_

Zachary, too. They both were strong, and they both trained constantly. No normal water type could have the strength to come in and kill them so easily like that.

Sudden realization then hit the torchic hard, which caused the tears to leak out even faster and more menacingly. _If I had learned how to fight, maybe they would still be alive?_ If she had trained properly, she could have been capable of fighting right beside them, and they would've been able to defeat the two water types as a family. _It's my fault._ With a shaking frame, she gazed up at the sharpedo.

The water type was feasting on the corpse of her brother, chewing away at the flesh it had broken not too long ago. It sounded as if it was happy as it released unidentifiable snarls and growls. A sick feeling rising in her stomach, Mary rapidly dashed away from the scene, not daring at look back. Crystal clear tears were blurring her vision, and soon enough, she managed to trip over a disfigured twig. Letting out a squeak, she landed roughly on the ground. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet.

The sharpedo must've heard her, for she heard rustling in the bush she had only just recently exited. Fear spiking in her chest, she quickly wobbled inside a much thornier bush, her feathers bearing cuts and scratches along the way. Pushing forward, she tried her best to distance herself away from the bloodthirsty pokémon.

 _I don't want to end up like them!_

It didn't take long for the water type to near the thorny bush. With little caution, it stuck its tip of a nose at the thorns, leaving traces of the strange goo that surfaced from its skin. Mary hesitantly backed further away, her skin now pressed against the thorns. _Please, don't find me,_ she silently prayed as she crouched down. The sharpedo hesitated, before jerking forward. A growl emitted from its maw as thorns scraped against its skin, opening plenty of new scratches and wounds. Releasing a snarl, it shook itself free, before releasing a jet of water to propel itself away from the scene. With hesitant movements, Mary made her way out of the plant, scanning around for the sharpedo. It had left. Wincing, she limped toward the opposite direction of where the sharpedo had left, her vision solely fixated on the path ahead.

The sun was already beginning to set when the fire type halted near a suitable bush for a nest. _My feet hurt,_ she whined, flopping down onto her side. _The scratches ache, too.._ It was hard not having her family around. She had no one to help her, no one to feed her. Of course, there was the option of residing with Damien and his trainer.. _No thanks. Dad wouldn't like that, and neither would I._

An aching pain formed in her upper chest as she thought of Zeke. Yes, he had a rather short and arrogant temper, and wanted his children to be fighters until the end, but he chose to act that way for a purpose. He didn't want his children to fall to humans as his mate had. He didn't trust humans, and that was for a perfectly good reason. _I shouldn't trust them, either._

Blinking away her thoughts, she emitted a soft yawn, before lifting herself back onto her feet. With a quick shake of her frame, she broke through the leaves of the nearest bush. Thankfully, she had managed to find a decently sized plant, for she was able to fit in it quite well. The only downside was that it wasn't as spacey as her old nest, and the leaves brushed against her feathered cranium, even when she crouched down to rest.

 _It itches!_

She knew that life without Zeke and Zachary will be frustrating and hard- that was certainly a given fact. But, maybe, there was a possibility that she would be able to cope with this change? It could take a while, yes, but she was probably able to manage. Zeke had healed from the loss of his mate, and now it was time for Mary to heal from the loss of her brother and father. She knew this day would come, but not so soon, and so violently. She thought that she would just one day leave the nest, no injuries or tears involved whatsoever. _I miss them._

Blinking her beady eyes, she let out yet another muffled yawn, beginning to grow more and more tired. Eventually, she managed to fall asleep, yet the thought of her family was still present in her brain.

When she came to, she couldn't help but notice a stack of oran berries resting in front of her. A little appalled by the discovery, she quickly gulped them up, realizing the hunger she had promptly ignored the day prior.

 _Where did these come from?_ she wondered, savoring the taste of the treats on her tongue. _They taste so good._

Poking her orange head out of the bush, Mary blinked her eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness that poured around her. Bringing her entire body out from the leaves and into the bare open, she looked around, curious to see if a pokémon was nearby. How else could she have gotten those berries, anyways? Interestingly enough, no berry trees or berry bushes were nearby.

 _Then how-_

"Hello!" a familiar voice rang out, causing Mary to whirl around to face the owner of the greeting. There stood Damien, a happy smile on his maw as he eyed the fire type up and down. "You ate the berries, right?" She nodded, blinking slowly. "Yay!" Letting out a happy and childish giggle, the mudkip began to happily bounce up and down.

"I'm glad you ate them!" he continued, his tone just a little more happy than before. "You see, the more oran berries you eat when you gain an injury, the quicker you heal!" He seemed proud of his work- the triumphant smile on his face gave that fact away.

Giving no time for Mary to respond, he excitedly continued, "However, the older and stronger you get, the more useless the oran berries get! That's because you're stronger, and their effect won't be able to much up to that! At that point, they're only just food!"

Mary was dumbfounded. Never before had she heard that oran berries could actually heal injuries. Of course, Damien mentioned that it only worked for younger and weaker Pokémon, and soon it could just end up as food for the older and more stronger Pokémon.

 _Could that be a reason why Zeke and Zachary never mentioned those effects?_ Possibly. After all, they were quite older than her, let alone stronger.

"Where did you learn that?" she questioned, cocking her head to her left as she casted a puzzled look to the water type. He excitedly bounced, eager that she was talking.

"May!" Damien answered proudly, his mouth gaping open in a smile. "Isn't she so cool? She's the best!"

 _May?_ she pondered, drowning out Damien's consistent blabbering. _Oh yeah. His trainer._ Glancing down at her beaten up legs, she noticed that the bite marks the sharpedo had laid on her were beginning to fade away, but not completely. _He was right._ Oran berries did heal weaker pokémon. She felt a tiny stab at her minuscule pride, since she was labeled as a "weaker Pokémon", but she tried her best to ignore it.

"Oh, this is for you!" Damien said, his paw reaching out to his side. Happily, he shoved a red flower toward Athena's feet. A lily.

"Oh, thanks-"

"C'mon, I wanna show you something!" Without any further wait, the mudkip headed off to his left. The chick pokémon froze at first, a little confused. Silently, she followed him, her feet stepping over the flower. Curiosity had gotten the best of her.

For a few moments the two walked in silence, albeit there were moments when Damien proudly boasted about how amazing and wonderful his trainer was. Never did he mention anything else, however he did occasionally ask about Mary's family, yet even that was kept to a minimum. Each time she silently answered each question as truthful as she could, and even added the fact that they were no longer around. Much to her surprise, the mudkip never apologized about her loss, or anything of the sort. Instead, he merely shrugged the sad news off.

 _It's as if sadness isn't a thing to him,_ she thought.

After a rather long journey, Damien paused in his tracks, glancing back toward Mary. "Wait here!" he happily ordered, before bounding inside a heap of shrubbery. The torchic obliged. However, the waiting didn't last long, for soon Damien was back, bursting through the leaves.

"Oh, you're gonna love this!" he squealed, pushing the chick Pokémon into the bushes. After a few shoves, she stumbled out into the open, on the other side of the foliage.

What was in front of her caused her legs to bolt to the ground out of fear. _Oh no!_ Two humans, one male and one female, had their back facing toward the torchic and mudkip. They were both in some sort of conversation.

"D-Damien!" Mary sputtered, fluffing out her feathers in pure fear he called out to the humans with a strange squeak.

The first one to glance back at them was the female, and other quickly followed suit. "The female is May," Damien explained, growing more and more excited as she approached them. Mary, on the other hand, grew more and more frightened. "The male is this dude called Brendan! May likes to hang out with him a lot, and every now and then I get to see him!"

May bent down in front of the two, a soft smile on her lips as she patted Damien's head. "Hi, Damien," she greeted, continuing to pet her pokémon. Mary watched in horror as he happily accepted the hand, letting out a strange cooing noise. "Who's your friend?" Soon enough, it was her turn, only she received much worse treatment. The human picked up Mary with her two hands, and lifted her off of the ground.

Zeke had only picked her up once or twice, and he was much taller than the female human, but at least he was _family_. This human was a complete stranger!

"Hey, Brendan!" May called out, signaling the other human to come over. "Check out this Torchic!" Brendan strolled over, his blue irises fixated onto the much smaller fire type.

At first, Mary mistook the white blotch on his head as his hair, but upon further inspection, she figured that it must be what humans called a hat. _How weird!_

Brendan awkwardly eyed the fire type, before bringing his attention onto May. "Do you know what gender it is?" he asked, his voice much quieter than the torchic expected.

"I think," May mumbled, lifting the fire type over her head. May's voice was certainly much more boisterous than Brendan's. Staring at her underside, she nodded her head, before lowering her arms. "Yup, it's a female!" Fluffing out her feathers, Mary looked down at Damien, who was proudly watching the two humans. "Hey, Brendan! I got an idea!"

"Hm?" The trainer brought his gaze from the torchic to the fellow human, a quizzical look plastered on his features. Mary didn't like this fellow- he was strange. Not to mention rather quiet, compared to those around him.

"You don't have a Pokémon yet, so you should totally catch this torchic!"


	4. Chapter 4

Mary felt her heart sink at the single sentence the human spat out. Looking up at May, then to Brendan, she began to struggle against the grasp of the trainer that held onto her, letting out a series of desperate and anxious chirps. Brendan looked a little flustered as he brought his blue-gray irises down onto her. He appeared to be biting his lip lightly as he did so.

"I don't think she wants to be captured," he softly observed, eyebrows furrowing as he watched the struggling torchic. May only shrugged her shoulders, still smiling as she looked at the scared fire type.

"Nonsense! You just gotta use a poké ball," she said, handing him an item from the accessory attached to her waist. Mary began to flap her wings, trying to hit them hard on the trainer that was holding onto her. Unfortunately, her method of attack did not work. Looking down at Damien, May asked, "Damien, can you aid Brendan in capturing the torchic?"

The mudkip jumped up and down, much to Mary's horror, and soon enough she was placed on the ground. With the poké ball clutched in his hand, Brendan took a few steps back, positioning himself a little ways away from the torchic as May set her down. Damien hopped in front of the male trainer, facing Mary as he shifted into a battle stance. She tried to scurry away, but May quickly- and effortlessly- stopped her with a foot.

"Tell Damien to use tackle!" she ordered, looking up at her companion.

Brendan obliged, awkwardly looking down at the water type. He appeared to be not too confident in his battle abilities as he bunched his shoulders together. "Uh-"

Without even receiving an order, the mud fish pokémon nodded. Swiftly, he dashed forward and tackled himself into Mary. Instinctively, she let out a squeak as the male pinned her down, a happy smile on his face as expected.

"Throw the poké ball!" May ordered, proudly watching her pokémon.

Brendan jumped just a tad, before taking a few steps toward the fire type. Crouching down, he lightly scooted Damien off of her, and pressed the circular item he held against her forehead. In an instant, a black blanket enveloped over Mary, and the sounds of the outside world faded away.

At first, she was a little confused, but then it dawned on her: she had been captured. Or, rather, she could be captured, should she not try to break free from the pitch black capsule. Looking around the circular area, she desperately sought a way out. The area was pretty small, and she had almost no extra room for her to move around. Soon enough, it seemed as if her small efforts turned out to be in vain, for a loud clicking noise echoed around her.

 _Oh no!_ She was captured.

In front of Mary was a large, white dot. Other than that, there was nothing but a strange, ebony black essence that drifted around her.

 _The dot must be the way out._

With little hesitation, she pushed the button, allowing a bright light to engulf her frame. After a few moments of the blinding light, she soon felt the comfortable feeling of the grassy forest floor. Scrambling to her feet, she scanned around the surrounding premises, smoothing out her fluffed feathers. She was still where she had fought Damien. However, both him and May were gone. Turning around, the torchic saw Brendan staring blankly down at her.

"Do you mind?" Mary chirped, narrowing her eyes in disgust. _Jeez, these humans are creepy!_ she scowled to herself, eyeing her new trainer up and down. His outfit was honestly a little weird to her. _Does he have_ any _other hair, other than that mess on his head?_

His red and dark gray clothing clashed violently with his neon green backpack. At least the accessories on his feet- she guessed those were what humans called shoes- had some neon green on them, most likely to match with the backpack.

Sadly, it seemed as if Brendan didn't understand her, as he continued on with his staring. He was still biting his lip, as if he wasn't sure what to do or say. After a few moments, he shrugged, gently using his hands to pick her up. Feeling his hands awkwardly grasp her feathers, Mary let out a loud squeak. The shrill noise caused Brendan to jump a tad, his shoulders bunching in alarm.

"Sorry," he mumbled, lifting the torchic off of the ground. Turning heel, he began to walk away from the scene.

After what felt like ages to Mary, the two entered a small, rural town. "This is Littleroot Town," Brendan quietly- and uncomfortably- informed her, keeping his eyes ahead as he awkwardly shuffled his feet. Mary took a quick sweep over the premises with her vision, taking in the surroundings.

 _What a weird place for humans,_ she noted mentally, eyeing the structures that towered over them.

She figured that they were the humans' nests, otherwise known as houses. Brendan didn't say anything else; he only sighed heavily as he walked toward a small house near the corner of the town. Once he opened the door, he took a few steps inside, before closing it.

"Mom, I'm home," he casually called out, before heading toward a nearby staircase to their left.

Mary squeaked as Brendan began to climb up the wooden stairs, using one of his arms to grip onto the railing beside them. Once he got past the stairs, he turned to his right, heading toward a set of two brown doors. Using his free arm, he twisted the shiny doorknob of the door farthest to the right and opened it, revealing a blue room. He closed the door behind him.

Setting Mary down, the human plopped himself on his bed, before sighing heavily as he took off his white cap. She looked around his room. It contained a blue wall, as mentioned earlier, and a desk with a shelf sitting above it. However, none of that really interested her. Instead, she paid a bit of her interest on her trainer. He was strangely quiet, and seemed like a rather shy guy. Perhaps he wasn't too harsh, like how she was always told, but maybe a little gentle?

 _Hopefully._

With a few chirps, Mary jumped onto Brendan's bed. She struggled quite a bit, considering how taller it was than her. However, thanks to the help of the human, she managed to make her way up. It felt way more softer than her nest back at home, and she cooed to herself in glee as she gently laid down on the blue, cotton blanket beneath her, and rested her head.

 _It's so nice,_ she thought, her eyes closing.

Eyes fluttering open, the torchic released a yawn, noticing that she was on a different part of the bed. Instead of being near the center, she was positioned by the end, near a brown frame. With wide, beady eyes, she swirled her head around.

 _Did I fall asleep?_ It seemed so. Brendan was not in the room, and the door was wide open. Swerving her head toward a nearby window, she noted that it was dusk- the sun was lowering itself from view.

With no hesitation, Mary bolted out of the room, and hopped down the steps of the staircase, her feet a blur as she did so. Halfway down, however, she slipped and crashed onto the wooden floor of the home. Scrambling to her feet, she frantically looked around the surrounding area, before dashing to her left and down a short yet wide corridor.

 _This place is so confusing!_

Screeching to a halt, she saw Brendan sitting by a table in front of her, a strange wooden device in his hand. To her right was a strange room with metallic objects and a bunch of smaller tables hanging from the ceiling, and to her left was a room with a black screen resting atop yet another table. Deciding that the room to her left was safer, she darted toward that direction. With hasty movements, she hid herself in the shelves of the table the black, rectangular object sat on.

At first, everything seemed perfectly peaceful and normal about the location. Soon, however, she heard a small shuffling noise, that only quickly erupted into a deafening roar. Fluffing out her feathers in terror, the chick Pokémon scurried over to a large, cushiony object. Jumping onto the object, she took a moment to catch her breath, before brining her vision onto the loud contraption. A female, taller than Brendan for sure, was moving it around, her eyes fixated onto the ground.

She watched as what she assumed to be the mother of Brendan turn the machine toward the torchic, her vision placed on the ground. The human silently urged the machine forward, sucking up dirt and other small particles beneath the object the pokémon sat on. The monstrous roar the contraption was deafening, to say the least, especially since it was so close.

 _It's so loud!_ With a high-pitched squeal, she tried to back further away, but to no avail. She already had her back pressed against the soft wall of the cushions. _Please don't find me!_

The human then looked up, staring into the eyes of the frightened Mary. For a few moments she stood there, before bringing her gaze toward her son. "Brendan," she called out, her tone a little cross as she flicked the machine off, "is this the pokémon you told me about?"

Brendan looked up from the table, peering over the half-wall that blocked his view just a tad. Noticing Mary, he nodded his head. "Yeah, that's it," he spoke up, lifting himself from the chair before making his way into the room. Picking up the torchic with one arm, this time his grip being a little more softer compared to the last time he held her, he looked up at his mom. "I'll put her away, if you want."

"Please do," the older woman responded, her fingers running through her dark brown hair. Mary blinked, a little shocked to see how calm the mother was. If this was Zeke, Brendan would've been given a vicious scolding. "Did you finish your dinner?"

"Yes," Brendan politely responded, motioning toward the table with his hand. "I cleaned it up, too." With that, he was shooed away by a flick of his mom's hand. Silently, he escorted Mary to his room.

After he closed the door behind him, he placed Mary down onto the carpeted floor of his room, before sitting in front of her.

"Okay," he softly began, "I think my mom doesn't mind you. But I don't know about my dad. He likes normal type Pokémon, and since you eventually evolve into a fighting type.." A small yet noticeable smile formed on his features as he stared toward his door. "He told me that I needed a pokémon, though, and now I have one. There isn't a problem with that, is there?"

 _Yes, there is a problem with that!_ Mary silently whined _._

With a small snort, she began to preen her feathers, looking away from him. Whatever he was talking about really didn't interest her that much, but he didn't seem to notice. That, or he was just too polite to really mind.

"You see, my friend May wants to become the champion when she's older," Brendan continued, shrugging his shoulders as he brought his gaze back to Mary. "I don't really want to. I mean, it sounds like a lot of work to do. My parents work at a gym a huge chunk of their lives- it's rare that they're home." He released a sigh. "They're usually gone for a long time when working, so I'm left alone in the house. I don't mind, though. They at least give me money for groceries, and they pay the bills and stuff at their gym."

Mary stared back at Brendan, her eyes narrowing just a tad. _What's a gym?_ she asked herself, blinking. _And what are groceries and bills?_

She couldn't ask the male what those were, unfortunately, so she only offered a simple chirp in response. Brendan smiled softly at the chirp, and then threw himself backwards, now lying down on his back as he heaved a sharp exhale.

After a few moments of silence, Mary sauntered away from the male, climbing over his arms to head over toward his desk. It didn't take long for the trainer to follow suit. Stopping behind her, he picked her up and placed her on the desk. Sitting on the chair, he grabbed a white book and placed it down, opening it casually.

"I just remembered," he mumbled, dwindling with the pages that the book had, "you don't have a name. It's kinda boring having a nameless pokémon, y'know?"

 _I actually do have a name,_ Mary thought to herself, eyes narrowing as she glared at the human. Of course, he couldn't understand her. He only greeted her with a soft look, before showing her the cover of the book.

"Wouldn't it be cool if you had some god's name?" he rhetorically questioned, setting the book down once the pokémon eyed it. He appeared to be bursting with excitement, strangely enough. "Of course, May said you were female.. So you need a goddesses' name."

Mary didn't even know what a god or goddess was. While she didn't want to change her name, it was important to pay attention. If she chose not to listen, she could be confused whenever her trainer called out for her in the future.

For a few moments, Brendan flipped through the pages, before halting on a rather colorful one. "Maybe.. Persephone?" he asked, glancing at the torchic. "Nah." Looking back at the book, Brendan hastily continued going through the pages. It looked as if he was growing more and more desperate to find the perfect name for her. "Aphrodite? Demeter? Hera?" He shook his head after giving himself a few more moments to think.

 _I don't even know half of the stuff he's spitting out!_ Mary mentally moaned, watching his hands whirl through the seemingly endless amount of paper. Suddenly, he stopped, his hand landing on a page laced with unidentifiable scribbles and tints of red.

Looking back at Mary, he offered, "Athena?" She looked at him, her eyes a tad wide as she cocked her head. Brendan smiled, looking back at the book. "Then that's settled," he stated, closing the item and setting it back on his shelf. Looking back at her, he allowed his smile to grow larger as he happily patted the torchic's head.

"I think Athena fits you perfectly."


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, the torchic woke from the sounds of the taillow outside chirping their hearty songs. Beady eyes slowly opening, she looked around tiredly, yawning as her eyes scanned the room. Brendan was not in the area, and on his bed laid a neon green backpack. His shoes were placed beside the accessory, tagged along with the cap he wore on his head.

Looking at her feet, she soon realized that she had fallen asleep on his desk. Vivid memories came back to her, flooding through her mind: she was named Athena, after some goddess or whatever.

 _That'll take a while to get used to,_ she thought, jumping off the desk with a grunt. Strolling across the carpet, she released a sigh. _But I'm sure I'll get used to it sooner or later._

Deciding to be a bit nosy, Athena hopped onto Brendan's soft, warm bed, and peered inside his backpack. Inside of it were a few utilities, such as a toolkit and a small bag of food. She was about to investigate the brown paper bag, but soon Brendan walked inside the room, scaring her. Jumping away from the backpack, therefore falling off the bed, she looked up at him, expecting a scolding. Brendan paid little to no attention to her; instead, he walked over to his desk and grabbed a small journal, then tossed it on his backpack. Athena watched with curiosity as he went through his desk, grabbing a few extra wooden utensils.

 _What is he doing?_ she thought, cocking her head at an acute angle.

Padding over to his left foot, she attempted to get a view of the contents inside the bottom drawer of the desk, but to no prevail. Letting out a caw, she gazed up at her trainer, who greeted her with a quick glance of his blue-gray irises. After a few moments or so, Brendan stopped going through his drawers, and headed toward his bed as he began to stuff the items near the backpack inside, except for a few such as his cap and shoes. Athena quickly followed after him, hopping onto the bed with a big leap.

Zipping up his backpack, Brendan stretched out his arms. "I'd say we are about ready," he stated, looking around to make sure he didn't miss anything. The fire type simply chirped in response, flapping her useless wings as she tried to assume whatever he was talking about.

"Mom and Dad left late last night," he informed her, nodding his head in approval. "That means I get to go out and about more frequently." Athena released another chirp, half-heartedly paying attention to the blathering male. "Since it's the summertime, Mom and Dad will be working at the gym a lot. They said they won't be back for a while, so they left some money so I can get groceries."

Grabbing onto the strap of his backpack, he slung it over his shoulder, before tugging on his shoes. After that, he scooped up his cap and placed it atop his brown hair, messing with it slightly to get it in the right position before lowering his arms.

"I say we're about ready," he softly repeated, reaching forward to grab the torchic. Fluffing out her feathers, she bounced off his bed, only to hop next to his feet. Brendan hesitated, then simply shrugged in response.

Walking toward his room door, he opened it, then head toward the staircase. Bending down, he carried Athena down the stairs, and out the front door. After locking the door behind him, he gently placed her back down on the ground.

It was a nice, sunny day, and the small population of Littleroot Town was bustling about. Brendan professionally avoided bumping into others, heading straight toward the back of the town, where a path of shrubbery lay. Stepping over the bushes, he shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing back at Athena to make sure she was still following. Of course, she had no other choice but to follow.

 _I don't wanna get lost here,_ she mentally noted, shuddering at the mere thought as she gazed back at the sea of humans.

Every now and then the two took a break, and relaxed under the cool shade the trees provided. Brendan brought quite a bit of food for this event, and even fed some to Athena. The most delicious kind of food for her was this yellow substance the trainer called corn. The corn was smaller than the berries she was used to eating, but it certainly did taste good, perhaps even better.

It didn't take long for the morning to make way for the afternoon, and once it did, Brendan sat down by a tree, taking his cap off as she did so. Athena followed suit, her legs giving way as she positioned herself by him. The clouds above the canopy of leaves drifted as lazily as they could, as if they were competing with one another.

 _It's so peaceful here,_ she thought, releasing a yawn. _Hopefully he'd let me take a nap._

She could feel her consciousness fading away slowly. Every few moments she found herself leaning toward the human's leg, until she caught herself and straightened back up. However, right when she was about to doze off, Brendan spoke.

"Are you hungry?" he softly asked, his vision placed onto her. Drowsily nodding her head, Athena strained her vision to stare up at him expectantly. After a few short moments, he stood up, looking around. "There might be some berries around here," he stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Want to go look for some?"

 _Berries?_ The fire type lifted her cranium to look up at him. _I'm too tired, though.._ With a quiet chirp, she stood up, and followed her trainer as they once again trekked through the forest. She was growing more and more tired with every step she took; never before had she walked for this long.

Brendan seemed to have more energy than her, and he walked quickly ahead, pausing every now and then to let the torchic to catch up.

 _How does he manage to walk for so long?_ she thought, letting out a meek chirp as she flopped onto her stomach. Her legs ached with exhaustion as Brendan bent down to scoop her up. She had little energy left to refuse, so she reluctantly accepted the offer.

Brendan continued to walk through the clearing where the two first met, keeping silent as he looked around for either berry bushes or trees. Every time he found one, he plucked a few berries, and promptly dropped them into a plastic bag. The chick pokémon was beginning to grow rather comfortable in the grasp of the human, and she soon found herself drifting off to sleep.

Halting by a berry tree, Brendan began to pick off one of the berries, but a foul smell wafted through the area. He hesitated. Athena, too, couldn't help but smell the scent, and she looked up to her trainer worriedly. The area was awfully familiar.

 _A little too familiar._

Setting Athena down, Brendan creeped his way over toward the area where the odor seemed to be pouring from, and gasped at the sight. Athena tiredly scurried after him, confused at what he was so shocked about, until she saw the scene.

 _No.._

There, in front of the two, were the rotting corpses of a combusken and a blaziken. "Oh _God_ ," Brendan gagged, quickly turning away. "Let's go, Athena." But she stood still, paralyzed almost, as hot tears began to leak out of her eyes. She just couldn't rip her vision from the horrific scene.

"Athena?" Brendan called out, gazing back at her. Noticing how she was standing still, he bit his lip, before strolling over. Crouching down behind the chick pokémon, he tried his best to keep his gaze off of the bloody scene as he scooped her up. She didn't protest- her attention was locked on the scene in front of them. "C'mon, Athena," Brendan desperately urged, "we need to go."

With small whimpers, she dropped her vision to the forest floor, the graphic image of her dead relatives still present in her mind.

 _Why?_ her mind questioned. _Why did we have to run into that?_ The scene of her family being mutilated by the water types repeated menacingly in her head, taunting her to the point where she broke out into a heaving fit of sobs. _I miss them._

Brendan stopped dead in his tracks, sympathetically gazing down at the chick pokémon. "Athena," he murmured, awkwardly shuffling his feet around. She ignored him, only to feel his arms move around in an attempt to hug her.

"It'll be okay," the trainer soothed, his tone calm and quiet. Athena didn't respond. Instinctively, she buried her face into his shirt, wanting more comfort than what she had at the moment. "Sshh, it'll be alright," the human gently continued, beginning to slowly walk forward.

Once the two had managed to reach the tree where they had stopped earlier, the chick Pokémon had stopped crying. Brendan didn't talk much, and he decided not to eat the berries he had gathered, either. Setting Athena down, he placed a handful of berries in front of her, before sitting down himself and leaning his back against the bark of the tree.

"We're gonna head home soon," he mumbled, fiddling with his red and black shirt. Looking up at the fire type, he sighed, watching her eat the berries slowly. "I'm sorry about that." She didn't respond, giving him more time to speak. "I shouldn't of just went over to that. I probably should've just used my brain, and walked away from it. You didn't need to see that."

Athena blinked up at her trainer, before glancing down at the rest of the berries. "Y'know," Brendan continued, his voice a tad softer, "that was awfully close to where we met. And those pokémon- combusken and blaziken, I mean- are rare." He paused, as if he wasn't sure of himself. He took a shaky breath. "Was that your family?" The fire type met the male's gaze, hesitating slightly, before nodding her head. For a few moments, he remained silent, a look of guilt evident on his face. "Sorry."

 _Don't apologize,_ Athena thought, blinking her eyes in slight guilt. _It's not your fault._ Letting out a few chirps, she made her way toward the male, resting beside him. Fluffing out her feathers, she nuzzled against Brendan's shirt, accepting the few pats he gave in return.


	6. Chapter 6

Brendan decided not to go outside the following day, interestingly enough. Instead, he and Athena remained indoors, with only the bright light pouring from the shut windows to remind them of the world beyond the walls. He never specified why he chose to remain in his home, but that didn't matter much.

 _Thank goodness,_ Athena thought, her head rested on a snow white pillow. _I don't wanna go out there again._

Courtesy to the events of the day prior, she was rather reluctant to place a single foot in the woodlands. Although the forest was rightfully her home, a sight such as her fallen family was enough to scare her away from it. With a small yawn, she gazed up at Brendan, who sat right beside her.

The two were both sitting on a brown couch located inside his living room. While Athena chose to spend her time lazing about, Brendan stared at a strange paperback book he held. Every now and then he flipped a page, or even looked at the torchic next to him. Those moments did not last long, however. The book was apparently more interesting to him.

With a squeaky yawn, the fire type brought her attention toward the table that laid in front of them. It was as bare as it could be. There were no objects placed atop it; the only thing that occupied the wooden structure was a small string, likely from a piece of clothing. The television that was on top of yet another table across the room was just barely more interesting. It had strange, moving pictures, yet they emitted no sound. They were silent.

Shifting around, she looked back at Brendan, who made little to no movement thus far. His eyes shifted from side to side as he went through the black scribbles the inside of the book contained, and soon enough, he turned a page.

 _What's so interesting about that?_ Athena thought, her eyes narrowing in slight disgust as she stared at the pages. _It looks so boring!_

With a small huff, she lifted herself to her feet. Without a moment to lose, she hopped off of the couch, her talons making contact with the beige carpet below. She cringed just a tad as she treaded across the room, her feet awkwardly kicking off fluff from the floor every now and then.

 _The carpet feels so gross!_ Pausing at the border between the carpet and the wood, she hesitated. The wood hardly looked better. While it certainly was clean and shiny, it looked a little too slick. _How do the humans stand this?_

She preferred the earthy feel of dirt and grass beneath her. Placing a single talon on the wood, she paused, before continuing on. The wood felt odd and, surprisingly, worse than the carpet.

With a blink of her eyes, Athena found herself creeping beneath a shadow. Looking up, she slowed down, her feathers fluffing out. The dining table above her looked so heavy- what happened if it toppled over? Not wanting to find out, she scurried ahead, her figure leaving behind the shadows. Her sprint did not last long, however. With a loud squeak, her feet gave way beneath her, causing her to land on her stomach.

A distant noise of shuffling sounded from the living room. Quickly, she tried to bring herself back onto her feet, all while the beat of footsteps began to near her. A pair of feet hidden by socks stopped right beside her frame.

"You need to be more careful," Brendan sighed, his frame bending down to help the torchic off of the slick flooring. "Mom just cleaned the floor two days ago."

Athena released a small huff as the human held her in his arms, not bothering to place her back down. His were eyes trailed off toward some random direction. For a few moments she dangled there, her form trapped by his surprisingly strong grip, before she was placed atop the edge of the dining table. She glanced down.

 _It's so high!_ she mentally squealed, instantly scrambling away from the chipped edge.

She was not a big fan of heights. Remaining still, her eyes darted toward Brendan, who was digging through the refrigerator from the other end of the room. His hands gripping a strange bag, he closed the door, before grabbing an unidentifiable object to slice open the bag.

After a few moments of random activities Athena was unable to comprehend, he returned to the table. Plopping himself onto a chair, he rested his cheek on his hand, his vision brought to the window. She followed suit, turning her feet just a bit so she could watch. There wasn't anything interesting out there, minus the fact that dark clouds began to accumulate around the sky.

"It'll rain soon," Brendan sighed, his fingers drumming against the table. "It said so on the T.V."

 _That's why we aren't outside,_ Athena thought, her eyes fixated on the trees that began to shake from the wind. _But how did the T.V know that?_ With a sigh, she rested on her hindquarters. Her question was destined to never be answered, unfortunately.

A sudden, loud beeping noise erupted from the kitchen. Jumping in alarm, she looked up at Brendan, who seemed unaffected by the noises. Instead, he mechanically got up from his chair, and left the table to move to the kitchen. Athena released a small chirp, dumbfounded.

 _Humans are so weird,_ she thought, her attention back to the window.

After a few moments of silence, a small plate was placed beside her. "Food," Brendan said, causing the torchic to look.

The white plate held a small pile of corn, all in a strange variety of shapes and sizes. She hesitated a bit, poking a small chunk with a talon, before resting it back against the wood. Her stomach rumbling, she began to dig in, her yellow wings flapping excitedly as she swallowed a single pellet.

 _I didn't realize how hungry I was!_ she thought, her beak grabbing hold of another piece of corn. _It tastes so good!_

Brendan watched her for a few moments, before departing back toward the kitchen. It didn't take long for him to sit back at the table, a single piece of bread held in his hands. It hardly looked like that good of a meal. Athena paused to watch him pick off pieces and place it in his mouth, before bringing her attention back to the corn. She was already nearly done with it, considering the amounts Brendan had given her weren't much.

 _My stomach's already full,_ she thought, reluctantly opening her beak to eat yet another piece. _And I don't want to waste the food.._ After a moment's hesitation, she closed her mouth. She lifted herself onto the plate, awkwardly trying to make sure both of her feet were on the smooth material before proceeding to her task. _The plate's really warm,_ she mentally noted, fluffing out her feathers slightly in delight, _it feels so nice._

"Athena, what are you-" Brendan was cut off as the torchic pushed a pellet of corn off of the plate, allowing it to roll to him. He paused for a moment, a confused look plastered on his face as another piece was rolled to him. A look of realization then dawned on him. "Athena, thank you, but I'm not hungry.."

Once the final piece had made its way to the human, Athena faced him, proudly eyeing the corn. Brendan bunched his shoulders together, his hands squishing the minimal remnants of the bread he held. He looked flustered, to say the least, as he placed two fingers around a small piece. With a seemingly forced smile, he placed in it his mouth.

"Thank you," he repeated, once he had swallowed down the small pellet. Athena happily chirped in response.

A mighty clap of thunder suddenly roared outside, causing her to caw in response as she hustled forward. Landing in Brendan's lap, thus spraying whatever remnants of the corn all over the place in the process, she crouched down. Brendan jumped from the sudden reaction, his eyes widened as he stared down at the chick pokémon.

"Whoa, it's just thunder," he stated, awkwardly patting her head as another thunder roared from outside. Athena crouched further, her frame now inched closer to his shirt. "No need to worry."

 _There_ is _a need to worry!_ she angrily thought, her wings flapping slowly. It's thunder! As a wave of rain splattered against the windows, she squeaked, expecting to be drenched immediately. However, that never happened. Looking up, she felt her beak gape open. _What..?_

"We're perfectly safe from the rain," Brendan continued, as if he were reading her thoughts, "we're in the house."

 _Oh._ A wave of relief swept over her, and yet, the frightened feeling continued to creep inside her as lightning flashed across the skies. _Still, it's pretty scary.._

Brendan didn't say anything after that. Instead, he picked up the torchic, and carried her over to the living room. Sitting back down on the couch, he placed her in his lap as he stared at the muted television. She followed his attention, curiosity spiking in her as she watched what appeared to be humans clothed in white throw punches and kicks alike at each other.

 _It's like Dad and Zachary!_ she realized, craning her head to get a better view. The taller human threw what appeared to be a spin kick at its spar partner. _They used to kick trees just like that!_

"I used to do that kind of stuff," Brendan spoke, breaking the silence.

Athena looked up at him, a bit shocked. _Really?_ She figured Brendan was a humble person, not a fighter, of all things. _You're nothing like Dad, or Zachary.._

"I ended up having to leave the class, though." Brendan softly laughed to himself. "The place I went to got shut down. Right after I received my black belt, too."

 _Oh._ Athena didn't know what a "black belt" was, so she had no real comment on what he said.

With a click of a black remote, Brendan turned the television off. With slow moments, he casually picked up the book he was scouring through earlier, and opened it. Athena watched him for a few more moments, before shifting around uncomfortably. She was rather grateful he decided to quit that lifestyle. For all she knew, he could've ended up like her family: uncaring, blunt, and battle-thirsty. He was- thankfully- nearly the exact opposite of them.

A strange noise sounded throughout the room, before suddenly, the entire house went all black. A threatening roar of thunder echoed in response, soon followed by lightning.

 _What just happened?_ Athena thought, crouching down in fear once more.

"You're kidding me," Brendan groaned, placing the book beside him.

Lifting Athena up once more, he began to move about, using a single hand to feel for any objects he may collide into. The torchic squirmed about awkwardly in his arms, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. Despite that, she was still not fond of the seemingly endless black abyss that surrounded them.

A drawer opened. After rummaging through the kitchen counter, Brendan pulled out a strange, yellow stick. He flicked the switch. Light poured out of a single end of the item, illuminating the surrounding area. Athena flinched just a bit at the sudden light, but soon relaxed once she grew used to it.

"Better," the human said, a noticeable smile of relief laced on his features. "I _hate_ power outages."

With that, he walked back to the living room, the pokémon still held in his arms. Sitting back down on the couch, he propped the flashlight against his leg, before setting Athena down right next to it. Propping open the book once more, he rested it against his lap, once again staring at the scribbles the pages held. Without anything to do, the chick pokémon rested her head against the soft felt of the furniture, closing her eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

"Today will be a lot better than yesterday," Brendan spoke, stretching out his arms with a hefty yawn. Athena looked up at him, her head rested on top of the blue blanket his bed contained.

 _I hope so,_ she thought, raising her head off of the fabric reluctantly. _Yesterday was really boring._

The rain had lasted all through the rest of the previous day, and even managed to stretch to the night. Thankfully, the power had managed to return, but that was when the torchic was already sound asleep due to the insane amounts of boredom she witnessed. With a small yawn of her own, she watched as Brendan lifted himself off of the bed, his hand outstretched for his shoes.

 _It's only morning!_ she thought, blinking her eyes. _What does he want to do now?_

She was too tired to move about so early; even though the sun had risen ages ago, she had only just woken up. Brendan apparently had been up for a while, for when she woke up, he was already moving about in the room. He was even wearing his hat by the time she had her eyes opened.

Interestingly enough, he did not put on his shoes. Instead, he simply held both of them with one hand as he used the other to escort Athena off of the bed. Once she was on the carpet, he made his way out of the room, and toward the stairs. Silently, she followed, and was once again picked up by a single hand as he went down the long staircase. Hopping off of the last step, he placed her back on the floor, before making his way to the kitchen.

"Since today is actually nice weather-wise, we can hang out with May," he said, dropping his shoes next to a chair beside the dining table. "That sounds fun, doesn't it?"

 _Not really,_ Athena mentally responded, watching as the human walked over to the kitchen. _But I guess being with Damien sounds fun._

For a few moments, she stood still, listening to her stomach rumble as she watched Brendan open the door to the fridge. After what felt like ages of prepping up food, he placed Athena on top of the dining table, giving her a plate of corn to occupy her.

 _More corn?_ she thought, eyeing the yellow substance. She couldn't help but notice he had given her a slightly smaller amount than what she had received the day prior. _Is that because he thought I wouldn't finish it if he gave me any more?_

Releasing a small chirp, she picked up a small pellet of corn in her beak, and promptly swallowed it whole. As she did so, Brendan placed a white bowl on top of the table. Inside the bowl was a strange, white liquid, with brown grains floating in the substance. Sitting in a chair, he bent forward, and scooped a circular utensil into the food.

 _What even is that?_ she thought, her eyes narrowing slightly. _It looks so gross!_ Silently, she watched him eat the food, before turning her head back to her own plate. Bending her head, she swallowed down another piece of corn, savoring the taste. _This probably tastes a lot better than whatever he has._

After their breakfast, Brendan stood up from his chair, and grabbed hold of the plate and bowl. Stacking the bowl on top of the plate, he walked over to the kitchen, and carefully placed them inside the sink. Once he was done with that, he made his way back to the table, and silently helped Athena back to the floor. As her feet made contact with the wood, she cringed slightly, still not used to the odd feeling of the floor.

His hindquarters plopping down onto the floor, Brendan grabbed hold of his shoes, before promptly shoving them onto his feet. Athena watched with slight interest as he fiddled with a strange lace, strapping it down against the white material of the shoe. Almost mechanically, he did the same thing to the other shoe. Right after that, he lifted himself to his feet.

"Okay, now he just have to wait for May," he said, heading off toward the living room.

Athena trotted after him, trying her best to ignore the horrible feeling of the carpet as she entered the next room. She stopped beside the wooden table in front of the couch, her eyes trained on Brendan as he sat down on the couch. A minuscule wave of confusion washed over her.

 _Why are we waiting for May here?_ she pondered. _Shouldn't we wait for her outside or something?_

As expected, her mental questions remained unanswered. The human simply played with the rim of his shirt, his eyes glued to the ceiling. Athena looked up. There wasn't anything interesting about the ceiling. However, it didn't take long for a strange noise to come from across the room. Quickly, she looked over at the back door, which stood in the far right of the room. There stood Damien, eagerly pawing against the outside glass of the door.

"Coming!" Brendan called, hopping to his feet and hurrying to the door.

Once he slid open the glass, the tiny mudkip bounded inside the home, getting tiny paw prints of mud all over the carpet as he happily bounced around. A feminine figure hustled after him, and as she hurried into the house, Athena recognized the human immediately. May appeared to be panting for breath as she scooped the mud fish pokémon into her arms, much to his dismay.

"Where's the torchic?" she asked, looking around curiously.

"Oh, her name's Athena now," Brendan spoke, turning to face the table the fire type stood by. "Athena?"

Obediently, Athena stepped out from behind the wood furniture, revealing herself to the trio. Damien looked about ready to explode from joy as he caught sight of her, with his entire frame squirming against his trainer's grasp.

"Jeez, calm down, Damien!" May jokingly chided, releasing the mudkip from her arms. "Anyways," she turned to face Brendan, "let's go outside! It's boring in here!"

"May is really straightforward," Athena observed aloud, taking a step back as Damien landed in front of her. _But at the same time, she's right. It is boring in here._

"Yeah, but she's really fun!" he squeaked, spitting the red flower in front of her. "This is for you!" Athena looked down at the plant. Judging from the appearance, she was capable of noting that it was a lily.

 _Didn't he give me one of those before?_ she pondered.

"C'mon!" Damien chirped, drawing her away from her thoughts. Hesitating slightly, she stepped over the flower, following the mudkip.

May was already halfway through Brendan's backyard by the time Athena and Damien made it to the stone patio. Hopping out of the house, she looked around the vicinity as Brendan shut the back door behind her, before promptly hurrying to join his friend. Damien quickly followed him, releasing strange noises that resembled joyful chirps.

 _The yard isn't that big,_ she noted, making her way across the stone patio. _And the stone feels even weirder than the wood!_ With a small hop, she quickened her pace. Once she made it to the grass, she sighed in relief, slowing her pace just a bit. _That's better._

The grass was just a bit damp from the previous rain, but it wasn't drastically dangerous. She only had to look out for the mud which, unfortunately, seemed rather abundant. Her eyes darted up toward the rest of the group, where they were running around, chasing each other. Not wanting to be left out, she took a step forward, only to have her foot land in a pile of mud.

 _Ew!_ she mentally squealed, immediately stepping backward. Desperately, she tried to shake the mud off of her talons. _That's so disgusting! How do they stand this?!_

She looked back up at the group. None of them seemed drastically dirty, aside from Damien, who was practically covered in mud from head to toe. That was to be expected of him, however. With a deep breath, she continued onward, this time hopping over the patch of mud she previously fell victim to. Once she was beyond the vile substance, she scurried ahead, swerving around whatever mud patches that laid ahead of her.

Tripping over her own feet, she landed onto her stomach, releasing a squeak. Scrambling to her feet, she stared down at her feathered chest. It was covered in tiny blades of grass and wet clumps of dew alike, much to her horror.

 _How do I clean this off?_ she thought, immediately bending her head down to preen her feathers. _This is so gross-_

Her thoughts were cut off as a force slammed her onto her back. Looking up, she stared with widened eyes at Damien, who had pinned her to the ground.

"What are you doing?" he asked in his high-pitched tone. "Let's have some fun!"

Hopping off of her, he gave the torchic some room to lift herself back onto her feet. Shaking off her feathers, she looked over at him.

"What do we do?" she questioned, her vision straying off toward May and Brendan. The two appeared to still be chasing each other, going in circles. Brendan was in the lead.

"We can play tag!" Damien offered. Without a moment to lose, he swatted his paw against Athena. "Tag!" With that, he was off.

Heaving a heavy sigh, the chick pokémon sprinted after him. As she ran, her talons scraped against the earth, causing loose blades of grass and piles of dirt to spray behind her. Almost expertly, she swerved around patches of mud, however, Damien did not. His rather awkward running form ran straight through the piles, causing the vile substance to splatter everywhere. He had little to no grace, needless to say.

Speed Boost activating, she finally managed to catch up to him. Brushing the tip of her wing against his skin, she said, "Tag!"

Instantly, she darted off toward the other direction. However, Damien did not follow suit. Instead, he stopped in his tracks, happily watching the two humans ahead of him with a small wag of his tail fin. Athena, too, eventually paused, her vision placed onto them. May had Brendan pinned to the ground, her hands rested on his shoulders as he protested against her weight.

"May, get off of me!" he complained, his fingers wrapped around her wrists.

"Make me!"

"No!"

"Then I won't get off!"

Athena watched the two struggle for a bit, before something caught her eye. Damien bounded at her, pinning her to the ground once again.

 _Ow!_ Catching her breath, she looked up at the male. "D-Damien!"

"Let's play wrestle!" he squealed, pawing at her face with his muddy paws.

The torchic squeaked in response, her legs kicking at the air frantically as mud began to plaster on her features. His hind paws dug into her chest, causing her wince from the contact. _This hurts!_

Despite her squeaking and protests, Damien did not fully budge. After a few moments, he placed his front paws onto the grass, yet his hind paws remained on her stomach.

"Let's play a different game!" he suggested, his tail fin wagging eagerly.

"Like what?" she asked, her breath short. _Please suggest something that doesn't involve tackling._

"I don't know!"

They didn't have much time to think. A shadow fell upon the two, and soon did May's hands grab the mudkip and yank him off of the torchic. Brendan followed her movements, only this time he chose to pick up his own pokémon.

"You sure you gotta leave?" the male human groaned, turning to face May. "We haven't been out here long."

"Yeah, Dad says we need to research around noon," May said, shrugging her shoulders. "I'll be here tomorrow and the day after, at least." Brendan didn't respond. "Sorry."

Athena blinked. They hadn't been outside for too long, and already did May have to leave. _I_ _wonder what she has to research?_

"Well, Damien, say goodbye!" May piped up, smiling down at the mud fish pokémon she held.

"Bye, Athena!" he squeaked, waving his one free paw with a beaming smile.

With that, May turned away and left, hurrying over to her own yard. Brendan stood there for a few moments, wistfully watching his friend leave, before turning around and heading back to the back door of his home.


	8. Chapter 8

"Up we go," Brendan heaved, picking Athena up from the floor.

Silently, the human went down the stairs, and hopped off of the last step. Once both of his feet were planted on the floor, he gently set the torchic down. He paused for a few moments to check if he had his hat on, before making his way to the kitchen. With a feeble chirp, the fire type scurried after him.

According to Brendan, it was yet another sunny day outside. Due to such a fact, he decided to go outside as quickly as possible- the sun wasn't even fully past the horizon when he began changing his clothes into a more suitable wear. He seemed excited for the day ahead, and it took a while for the torchic to realize why.

"Today and tomorrow are the last days May is free from research," Brendan said, his hand reaching for the bag of frozen corn in the refrigerator, "so that means we gotta spend a lot of time together. She won't be free for another month or so after tomorrow."

Without a moment to lose, he plopped down a plate of freshly cooked corn in front of Athena. With hunger sneaking all through her frame, she eagerly began to dig in, swallowing a single piece at a time. Brendan, on the other hand, served himself a rather anticlimactic piece of toast.

 _I don't get how he likes that,_ Athena thought, her wings flapping as she swallowed a piece of corn whole. It looks so dry and gross. Of course, she wasn't one to judge, for she mostly ate plain corn and berries. _Oh well._

Once the two had finished their meals, they departed the house from the back door. Athena was a bit intrigued by his decision- after all, the day prior, the two had to wait for Damien to come bursting into the house before going outside. Perhaps he was just eager to get the day started? Whatever the reason was, she didn't know.

Swiftly sprinting across the gritty stone patio, Athena bounded onto the soft grass. With a sigh of contempt, she allowed her talons to rake through the dirt. No longer was it muddy. Brendan simply walked after her, his hands shoved in his pockets as he looked around. Athena followed suit.

May was in her yard, kicking a rubber ball around. Chasing the circular object was a familiar blue blob of pure energy. Damien. He seemed to be excited when he pounced onto the object, before falling flat on his face as it rolled away.

How does he not get cuts all the time? Athena wondered, her head tilting slightly. He's so active..

"May!" Brendan called, waving a single hand as he picked up the pace, his feet making their way to the neighbor's own yard. The chick pokémon followed suit.

The fellow human turned to face them, a smile plastered on her features. Damien, too, lifted his head to see what was going on with a wagging tail. "Oh, hello Brendan!" she greeted back, walking toward him. Stopping in front of him, she bent down to pat the fire type's head. "And you too, Athena."

To be quite honest, May's way of petting pokémon felt like more of a beating than a pet. Instead of gingerly brushing the feathers and being polite, May chose to have her hand slam down upon the head in such a quick and stern pattern that it was actually _painful_. To put it simply, it was a lot more violent than necessary.

 _No wonder Damien is so resistant to injuries,_ Athena mentally realized. _May must pet him so hard that his head became as hard as a rock!_

Once she was free from the practice of figurative abuse, the torchic stepped to the side to face Damien. As expected of him, a smile was plastered on his face, all accompanied with his tail fin wagging excitedly. However, he was not in the same spot he was in earlier, for he was trotting toward the scene eagerly. In his mouth were a couple of red lilies.

"These are for you!" Damien said, his voice muffled by the green stems. Depositing them at the torchic's feet, he proudly smiled.

 _He must have slipped off when May was petting me,_ Athena hypothesized, her attention fixated onto the vibrant foliage. _Why does he always bring me that stuff?_

She kept her gaze down on the plants, unsure of how to react. "Thanks," she responded, tilting her head slightly. She didn't know what to do with them. She didn't want to hurt Damien's feelings, but at the same time, she really didn't see the significance of the flowers. They were just plants that were doomed to wilt, after all.

In an effort to avoid any further talk of the gifts, she brought her attention over to the two humans. They were in some form of a small conversation, with May trying to persuade Brendan to do something he clearly did not want to do.

"I think May wanted us to train today!" Damien piped up, his paws kneading against the grass.

"Train?" The torchic looked over at him. "As in, prepare for battles?"

"Of course!" Damien answered, his excitement growing. "Don't worry, training with May is fun!"

Athena was ready to retort with her own opinion of training, but she quickly managed to stop herself. _I guess it won't be as bad as Dad's method,_ she mentally sighed, looking back at the humans. _Brendan's too nice to be like him, but as for May..._ She wasn't sure what the female human had in store.

With a small sigh, she tried to listen in on the conversation. Damien, too, fell silent, for he was apparently interested in what was going on. Athena knew that it would only be a matter of time before he bursted out once more.

"May, there's really no point," Brendan moaned, his shoulders limping at his sides. "Athena doesn't need to evolve or anything."

May had her arms crossed in indignation. "Brendan, what happens if you're challenged to a pokémon battle?" she questioned. "Don't you wanna have fun?"

"We can have fun in other ways."

"Okay, and what if there's some bad guy, and you need to defend yourself?"

Brendan hesitated. A quizzical look flashed on his face, and his irises quickly darted down toward Athena. For a few moments he stood there, before looking back up at May.

"Well, I can probably fight them myself.." he mumbled, his shoes scraping the dirt beneath him.

"Uh-huh. So you plan on taking on an armed person?" May retorted back, a frown tugging at her lips. "Brendan, seriously, think about it. It would be good if you trained Athena up a bit." The human then smiled down at Damien. "Damien here has begun his training a while back, and we're seeing improvements!"

Brendan stiffened, his attention darting to the tiny mudkip. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he nodded his head. "Fine. Whatever."

Athena looked at Damien. He seemed about ready to burst from the excitement of receiving a compliment from his own trainer. That, or he was just excited to continue training.

 _I really hope this goes well,_ Athena thought, her feet awkwardly shifting around. _Training with Dad and Zachary wasn't fun at all.._

"Great!" May clapped her hands together, a pleased expression evident on her features. "Since Athena will one day evolve into a blaziken, maybe you can teach her how to kick?"

Brendan sighed, his eyes rolling just a tad bit before he glanced down at Athena. "I think her legs are too tiny."

"Nah, as long as she has a joint in them, she can kick!" May reassured him. However, she soon paused. "..Right?"

Brendan shrugged. Athena simply blinked, unsure of how to handle the situation. _I forgot Brendan told me he could kick and stuff,_ she thought. She studied him for a few moments, her eyes narrowed just a tad. _He doesn't look like a kicker._

With a wave of May's hand, the training began. Brendan chose to escort Athena away from his friend, heading toward the gap between his and May's backyard. His feet were dragging along slowly, as if he thought that by walking slowly, he would reduce the chances of having to train. His efforts were in vain, however, as May yelled at him to hurry up.

Stopping, Brendan looked down at the torchic, his shoulders saggy. "Okay, I guess I gotta teach you how to kick," he grumbled, his hands retracted from his pockets. "I guess we gotta stretch first, though."

The stretching session went by fairly swiftly. A good portion of the stretches Brendan attempted were nearly impossible for Athena, since some involved the use of arms. Thus, the human decided to simply skip them. Apparently they weren't important, anyways, so it wasn't a big deal.

Once his stretching was complete, Brendan shook out his feet and hands, before glancing down at the chick pokémon. "Tell me when you're ready."

Athena was busy attempting to stretch out her leg as far as she could. _This is so hard!_ she silently moaned, her legs beginning to wobble from the excessively hard action. _I'm starting to regret not stretching more often!_

Flopping onto her rear end, she panted for breath, before releasing a single chirp. Brendan simply nodded, before curling his fingers into fists. He studied them for a bit, before opening his mouth to speak. "Okay, so the first thing is the stance," he stated. "It's kinda like the foundation for kicks. Mimic what I do."

Effortlessly, he shifted his two feet so they were far apart, moving his left foot to the front and the right to the back. With his two fists, he raised them to about his chest level. Once he was in his fighting stance, he fixated his attention onto the fire type.

Athena watched him for a bit, her eyes narrowed from concentration. It seemed easy enough. Lifting herself back onto her feet, she attempted to copy his stance. She studied her feet for a bit, before glancing back at his. They were decently identical in position. Due to the lack of arms, she chose not to copy his arm movements.

"Okay, good," Brendan said, "so now let's try the first kick." He looked back at his right foot. "So what you gotta do is lift the leg up, with the knee facing the sky." He proceeded to lift his knee, his leg curled. "And then extend." He extended the leg out, swiftly kicking the air. Needless to say, it looked painful to receive a kick such as that one.

 _That's easy!_ Athena thought, watching him repeat the process. Silently, she lifted up her leg, but wobbled slightly. It didn't take much for her to lose her balance and trip forward.

Brendan watched her for a bit, before crouching down. "Your feet were too close together, I think," he said, gingerly reaching forward. Placing Athena back into the proper fighting stance, he grabbed her right leg and folded it so the knee faced upward. Releasing her, he instructed, "Kick."

Her leg snapped out, scraping the dainty air. It wasn't an impressive kick, but she had at least managed to do what Brendan had said. With his help, of course.

"Now try it on your own," he said, standing back up.

Athena placed her leg back onto the grass, before once again bringing the knee up. She hesitated for a bit, wobbling side to side, before kicking the air. She couldn't help but notice how much weaker that kick was than the previous one.

"You should probably kick higher then that," Brendan said, his shoulders shrugging. "But other than that, it's good. Your balance will improve eventually."

Leaning back, he looked over to where May and Damien were. Athena followed his gaze. The two were simply goofing off now, with May holding Damien upside down and rolling him across the grass. He appeared to be happy with whatever they were doing, as his tail fin was a whir from how fast it was wagging.

"Is she seriously trying to make him do _cartwheels_?" Brendan mumbled in slight disbelief, a frown laced on his face. "What happened to training?" Looking down at Athena, he rolled his shoulders. "We'll continue this later, I guess. I got a bone to pick with May."

With that, he turned heel and walked over to his friend, the tiny torchic soon tagging along.

"May!" Brendan called, his pace quickening. "I thought you were going to train Damien!"

May looked up at him, an innocent smile on her face as he stopped in front of her. "And I thought you were supposed to train Athena," she sweetly said. When Brendan crossed his arms, she sighed in defeat. "Alright, fine. I just wanted to have fun for a bit, okay?"

That response was apparently satisfactory to Brendan. Looking down at Athena, he sighed. "Got any fun activities in mind?"


	9. Chapter 9

The sun was reaching the middle of the sky by the time Brendan decided to head out to the backyard. He explained to Athena that he chose to wait longer this time just to avoid May forcing him to train the fire type. Although Athena doubted that his efforts would do anything, she appreciated the act anyways. She wasn't in the mood to train, either.

Stepping off of the gritty stone patio, she shook out her feathers, looking around. The sun was beating down on her back, but she didn't mind. She loved the heat. Brendan didn't.

"Gosh, it's so hot," he sighed, lifting his hat off of his head so he could fan himself. With pouting lips, he scanned the premises aimlessly. "How do you enjoy this?"

 _I'm a fire type,_ Athena mentally responded. However, to satisfy her trainer, she released a small chirp.

Without any further hesitation, Brendan began to walk toward May's backyard, the torchic following suit. As expected, May was already playing with Damien. Similar to the day prior, she was trying to get him to do various acrobatic tricks, such as cartwheels and handstands.

Ceasing to a halt beside the fellow human, Brendan watched silently, using a single hand to place his cap back onto his head. Athena paused as well, her head cocked to one angle. May was guiding Damien with her hands, trying to get him to do a cartwheel.

"Has Damien managed to do one cartwheel on his own yet?" Brendan asked, his hands shoved into his pockets.

May looked up at him and shook her head, her lips mouthing the word "no". Despite that, a proud smile was on her face as she turned her head to continue coaching the mudkip. Brendan released a soft and short laugh, his head shaking in mock disbelief.

"What about Athena?" May asked, her hands resting on her lap once she helped Damien into handstand position. Instantly, he flopped to the ground. "Has she managed to do one of those cool kicks yet?"

"Cool kicks?" Brendan repeated, his eyes falling down to the chick pokémon. She looked back up at him. "No, not really."

"Then you should probably teach her one!"

Damien lifted himself onto his hind legs, his tail fin wagging as he looked at Athena. "Come with me!" he said, before turning heel and rushing off to some random direction.

Athena looked up at the two humans, before following the mudkip. _I wonder what he wants?_ she thought, her pace quickening just a tad. _He probably just wants to play tag._

Interestingly enough, Damien rushed through the back door to May's home. Athena, however, stopped at the other side of the door, peering into the home. It looked nearly similar to Brendan's, however the living room had a wooden floor instead of a carpet. With slight hesitation, she stepped inside.

The wood was slightly slippery beneath her talons, she but managed to try and stay upright as she crept through the home. After a few short moments, Damien came sprinting into view, a flower in his mouth.

"This is for you!" he said, his voice muffled by the stem of the red lily in his mouth. Depositing it onto the toes of the torchic, he happily smiled.

Athena looked down at the flower, a little bewildered. "Where do you keep getting these flowers?" she questioned, her eyes widening just a tad.

"There's a flower patch full of these lilies near the front of town!" Damien squeaked, his excitement growing. "Wanna see them?"

Without waiting for a response, he sprinted out of the back door. Athena hurried after him, trying her best to keep up. It didn't take long for them to reach the front of Littleroot Town, but there appeared to be no red lilies in sight. Pausing, she panted for breath, looking around expectantly.

 _I don't see any flowers,_ she thought, watching Damien dive into a bush. When he didn't appear again after a few moments, she chose to continue following him.

Damien was sitting patiently by himself, his tail fin wagging once he caught sight of the torchic. With a beaming smile on his maw, he pointed to his right. "Here they are!"

Athena followed his paw. _Oh._ There the flowers were, all of them fully bloomed and waiting to be picked. A swarm of red, pink, and white glistened in the sun, dancing slightly from the breeze. Stepping closer to one of the flowers, she could smell hints of a springy air.

"There's so many of them," she breathed, looking back at Damien.

"Yup!" he responded, stepping beside the torchic. "I found these a while ago, when May was out researching with her dad. Isn't it cool?"

Athena nodded, her eyes scanning over the army of dainty flowers. Most of the plants appeared to be untouched, as if no one but Damien had found them. However, before the fire type could continue observing the foliage, she felt an object poking at her feathers.

Turning her head, she watched as Damien placed a red flower atop the side of her head. "What are you doing?" she asked as the mudkip stepped away.

"Decorating!" he cheerfully responded, a proud smile on his maw. "You look good with red!"

"Oh," Athena mumbled, thunderstruck. Damien smiled at her. "Thanks." _I didn't expect this to happen at all.._

With a hop from pure joy, Damien began to get to work. One by one, he grabbed a flower and set it upon the torchic's feathers. He was mostly gentle with his procedure, but every now and then he had to roughly shove the flower onto her to prevent it from falling off. Soon, he was done. Stepping back, he eyed his work.

Athena felt a little saggy from the amount of plants on her. Stepping forward, she tugged a white lily from the ground, and flung it atop Damien's head. Instinctively, he giggled, his paws kneading against the ground from excitement. Athena was ready to grab another white lily to toss it onto his gills, but a certain voice stopped her.

"Athena! Damien!" It was Brendan's. "Where are you?"

Together, the two pokémon scurried back to where they came from. While Damien rushed through the bushes without a problem, Athena chose to cautiously make her way through the branches and leaves, not wanting to ruin her decorations. Unfortunately, she had lost the majority of the flowers through the process.

Once she was past the foliage, she hurriedly ran after Damien, who was pawing to Brendan's leg. The human looked down at him, before bringing his attention to Athena, who was panting for breath as she slid to a halt.

"Oh, there you are!" Brendan said, crouching down to pet the two pokémon. "I thought you two got taken or something.."

"No one would take them if you actually trained Athena!" a voice snapped. This time it belonged to May. Stopping beside Brendan, she bent down to scoop up Damien.

Brendan rolled his eyes, not daring to say a single word. Playing with the single flower that was left on Athena, he softly smiled. "This is actually kinda cute," he commented. Athena flapped her wings, standing on her tiptoes. Instantly, Brendan picked her up, and then proceeded to straighten his posture. "What should we do now?" He turned to face May.

It seemed as if she knew he was going to ask that, for it didn't take long for her to respond. "Train." At Brendan's frown, she rolled her eyes. "What happens if these two get taken by someone? They can't defend themselves!"

Brendan opened his mouth. "But-"

"I know _you_ can fight, Brendan!" May cut off, her eyes rolling. She looked a little angry, which caused Athena to shift around uncomfortably. "But what if we aren't looking one day and some bad guy comes up? Damien and Athena can't fight! The only thing they know how to do is cuddle and be cute!"

 _Ouch,_ Athena thought, wincing as she looked at Damien. He seemed ignorant to everything that was going on, as his paw was swiping at the air playfully.

Brendan said nothing after that. His mouth snapping closed, he turned and walked off. Athena fluffed out her feathers as she noticed how aggressively he was walking- it was almost as if he was stomping his feet.

 _He's mad,_ she realized, her eyes darting up to his face. _I've never seen him mad before.._

Brendan stopped in the middle of his backyard, and placed Athena onto the grass. "Stretch," he said, his voice tainted with hints of anger and reluctance.

As the two began the process of stretching, Athena found her gaze slowly moving toward May's own yard. There she was, making Damien spit out an array of water guns at a rubber ball. The water attacks had enough power to move the ball back just a bit every time the water made contact with it.

"Let's go over that one kick," Brendan suddenly grumbled, shifting into his fighting stance. Athena looked up at him, copying his movements.

"Knee up." He lifted his back knee, the top of it facing the sky. Athena followed suit, trying her best to get it as high as possible. "Extend." His leg snapped outward, swiping at the air a little too aggressively. Once again did the torchic follow suit, however her kick was much weaker than his.

Brendan repeated the process a couple more times, making sure Athena was copying what he did. With every passing kick, whatever anger he held toward May and the idea of training seemed to fade away. Finally, after what felt like quite a long time of just kicking the empty air, he stopped.

"Try it on your own now," he said, the angered expression on his face completely faded into a neutral one.

 _That was quick,_ Athena thought, repeating the process of the kick. _I guess it doesn't take much for him to stop being angry._

Brendan watched her silently, before nodding his head. "Yeah, that's good," he said, bending down to softly pat the torchic's head. "Sorry about earlier.. Being mad and all." He paused for a few moments, before shaking his head to himself as he straightened his posture. "Anyways, let's move on to the next kick. It's kinda tricky, but fun at the same time. It's called a roundhouse."

Shifting back into his fighting stance, he lifted his knee. This time the top faced forward, toward May's backyard. Extending out his leg, he swung it against the air, before retracting it back.

 _That looks hard,_ Athena thought, her eyes blinking. Watching Brendan repeat the process once again, she flapped her wings idly. _Dad never kicked like this.._

"When using this kick," Brendan spoke, "try to imagine you're.." He paused for a moment, toying with his hands. "Try to imagine you're slapping someone, but with your foot instead." He looked back at his kicking foot. "When you're kicking someone, it's ideal to hit them in the stomach or head. I don't see you kicking anyone any time soon, but still." He lifted his arms into fighting position. "Now try it with me."

He lifted his knee and paused, giving Athena time to copy his movements. She, too, attempted to life her knee, but wobbled from a lack of balance. Stumbling to the side, she lowered her foot in defeat.

 _This is so hard,_ she mentally whined, her foot scraping the dirt. _Why do I have to do this?_

Stepping forward, Brendan crouched down, his hand reaching out. "Here," he said, grabbing hold of Athena.

Placing her into fighting position, he picked up her right leg. While his other hand grabbed hold of her side to keep her balance, he lifted up her leg, making sure the top of her knee was facing forward.

"Now slap the air," Brendan said. Athena extended out her leg, her foot whacking the air. "Good! Try it on your own now."

The torchic placed her foot down as soon as Brendan moved his hands away. With a small chirp, she did as he instructed, "slapping" the air with her foot. Her foot resting against the grass, she felt a little pride at what she had done.

 _I didn't stumble this time!_

Brendan, too, seemed pleased with the outcome. "Good job! Now-"

"Brendan!"

He turned. There was May, running toward the duo with Damien right behind her. Skidding to a halt in front of them, she motioned to her backyard.

"Damien and I gotta go," she said. "Dad's home, so we gotta head off to research now."

Brendan bunched his shoulders together. "I thought you were leaving tomorrow?"

May shrugged. "He came home early, I guess."

"That's weird."

Athena looked past May and Damien, toward the direction of their backyard. Standing there was an older man with a brown beard and white clothing. _That must be her dad._

"Well, see ya!" May said, a smile on her face. Looking down at Damien, she went on, "Say 'bye-bye', Damien!"

The mudkip reached forward, licking the top of Athena's beak. "Bye!"

With that, the duo turned heel and sped off, leaving behind a lonely Brendan and dumbstruck Athena.


	10. Chapter 10

"Ready?" Brendan asked, placing one of his hands on the doorknob as he looked drown Athena. She gazed expectantly up at him, her tiny head nodding in response. "Okay, let's go."

Opening the front door, he stepped back, allowing the torchic to hop out of the house and onto the porch. Closing the door behind him, and then locking it with a metal utensil, he began to lead the way to the forest, his hands shoved in his pockets. Athena scurried after him, positioning herself beside his left leg as they began to walk past other homes in the town.

"I really wish May could come," Brendan said, waving at a fellow human in the distance with a small smile. Athena looked over at the human he was waving at, only to find them unrecognizable. "She has to research with her dad, though, which means she won't be available for a while."

The sky was apale, calming blue, with few clouds dotted across it. As a result, the people of Littleroot Town were bustling about, minding their daily activites. Skillfully, Brendan managed to avoid most of the people, although he did wave and greet a few of them. Of course, those he greeted were unrecognizable by Athena.

Placing his hand back into his pocket, Brendan stepped over the bushes that bordered Littleroot Town from the forest with ease. Pausing, he glanced back. Due to her small stature, Athena had to scramble her way under the bushes, but he eventually made it through. Once she had caught up, Brendan continued walking on.

It wasn't even past noon when Athena was already exhausted from walking. Letting out a mix between a caw and a yawn, she shook her frame slowly. Vision drifting to her left, she caught sight of Brendan, who was organizing his backpack thoroughly as he walked. Flapping her useless wings, she peered back at the path ahead of them.

 _My feet ache,_ she groaned mentally. _Actually, no, my entire body aches._

It was strange, really, having the company of a human. It was especially strange considering the fact that her father had told her nasty things about them. However, here she was, under the care of one. Truthfully, she found Brendan more as a friend instead of a trainer. He hadn't even tossed her in a battle yet, and he most likely never would. He just wasn't that type of person.

With a small chirp, Athena eyed her surroundings. Compared to the bare look of Brendan's home, the forest was much nicer, and certainly more appealing. A few songs coming from the taillow above sounded through the forest. Little light was pouring from the canopy of leaves above, which allowed dark shadows to loom amongst the foliage. There weren't many pokémon nearby- there were only a few wurmples, all of which clung to the trees.

 _The forest is so nice,_ Athena thought, her feet stepping over a tiny twig. _I'm so glad Brendan decided to go out here today._

After the aforementioned human had finished his organizing, he promptly zipped his backpack and strapped it on. Blinking, Athena looked up at him, releasing feeble chirps from her beak. Brendan looked down at her and smiled, stopping in his tracks and bending down so he could pat her head. The torchic happily accepted the comfort he gave.

 _Dad said all humans were bad,_ she thought, _but this one isn't! He's so nice!_

Straightening his posture, thus drawing away from the pokémon, Brendan wearily looked around. "We should eat something," he stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. He glanced down at the fire type. "I don't know what, though.."

Athena sighed, plopping down onto her hindquarters. _Thank goodness, I really need a break!_

Brendan watched her for a few moments, before sitting down himself. Casually, he took off his green backpack and placed it on his lap. Zipping open the accessory, he began to rummage through it. Athena watched as he pulled out a set of berries he had packed. Oran berries.

 _What is he doing?_ the torchic thought, her eyes fixated onto his hands. He was using the berries he grabbed to form a strange, blue cube out of them. _That's really weird.._ Never before had she seen someone use berries in such a crafty way.

"This is called a poké block, I think," Brendan informed her, as if he had read her thoughts. She looked up at him, drawing her attention away from his hands. "It's just two berries mashed together to form a cube, but I don't know, they're nice to make. It passes the time, I guess." With that, he placed the poké block onto the ground. Athena lapped the treat up with her tongue.

 _It doesn't taste any different from a regular berry,_ she thought as she swallowed it whole. _What was the point of making it?_

"If you want some more, I hope you don't mind grabbing berries?" Brendan asked, bunching his shoulders together awkwardly. Athena reluctantly nodded, turning heel. "Thank you!" he called, watching her speed off.

Her feet released a pattering noise as they hit the ground, and with each step she took did she pick up her pace. Flapping her yellow wings multiple times, she fixated her vision onto a bush chalk-full of berries. Eagerly, she bounded toward the bush, picking off as many berries as she could hold in her beak. After staggering around a bit to regain her balance, she hastily scurried toward where her trainer sat, pleased to see him still mashing some berries together.

Padding over to him, Athena promptly dropped the two berries she had collected on his lap. Brendan offered a smile to her in thanks, then continued fiddling around with the berries he held in his hand. Forming yet another cube, he placed it in front of the torchic.

 _How many is he going to make?_ she pondered, bending down to eat the treat. _I can only eat so much.._

Brendan watched her eat the poké block, before moving on to make the next one. "Man, I'm hungry," he mumbled, shuffling his feet around as he grabbed the two berries Athena had deposited in his lap. Mashing them together, he quickly made another blue snack. Once again did he set the cube in front of her. Eagerly, she gobbled down the cube.

 _Now I'm full,_ she thought, leaning back with a small sigh.

Thankfully, no more poké blocks were placed in front of her. Instead, she heard the distinct noise of Brendan digging through his backpack, and she quickly looked up to see him pull out several pieces of bread. Silently, he ripped off a chunk of the wheat, and placed it in his mouth. After a few moments, he managed to finish his meal. He then proceeded to close his backpack, and strapped it over his shoulder once more.

"Hey, wanna continue walking around?" he asked, lifting himself to his feet. "It won't be for too long, since we gotta go home soon." Nodding her head, the torchic scrambled to her feet, only to be picked up by the human.

 _I'm capable of walking myself,_ she thought, her vision fixated onto at his face. Instead of struggling against his grasp, however, she simply kicked her legs at the air silently. _I am pretty tired, though.._

The two remained in a prolonged silence, having nothing to talk about as Brendan sauntered aimlessly about. Whenever a wild pokémon popped up, he simply turned heel and headed toward the opposite direction. Athena was beyond grateful for that.

Stopping by a small bush, Brendan plucked a single red berry off of it, before continuing onward as he nonchalantly handed it to Athena. She couldn't help but notice how sweat trickled off of his hand as he did so.

 _The temperature isn't so bad,_ she thought, swallowing the berry whole. Was he just more prone to hotter temperatures than she was? Considering she was a fire type, that was likely.

Soon enough, Brendan gently placed Athena down on a small log. He settled himself beside her, and even took off his white cap to fan himself with it. "Is it just me," he panted, leaning forward, "or is it _way_ hotter than yesterday?" The torchic flapped her wings in response.

"Are you hungry?" Brendan politely asked, grabbing the strap of his backpack as he looked at the pokémon.

She shook her head. _No, you gave me more than enough already._

With a shrug, Brendan simply allowed his hand to fall onto his lap, his eyes drifting off toward some random direction. Then, he scooted off of the log, heaving a tired sigh as he wiped his forehead. Athena followed suit. Once her talons were on the ground, she began to idly circle a random patch of grass, having nothing to do.

The sun was already showing signs of its upcoming departure, and Brendan was clearly exhausted, despite not really doing much that day except for walking and eating food. Turning to face her trainer, the chick pokémon watched as he laid his hat beside him, before lying down, using his arms to support his head.

 _I thought we were going to go home soon?_ she wondered, cocking her head in confusion. _What is he doing?_

As Brendan continued to look up at the sky, she walked toward him, her steps slow and steady. Ceasing to a halt by his side, she wiggled her rear as crouched down, her chest feathers brushing the green grass beneath her. With a loud caw, she jumped onto his stomach, scaring him as he instinctively sat upward. Calming down, he glanced at the torchic who triumphantly puffed out her chest as she stood on his stomach, proud of her victory.

"You scared me," he said, rubbing his cranium with a single hand as he propped himself up on his elbow. With a loud yawn, he added in a muffled tone, "I'm guessing you want to go home, huh?"

 _Precisely._ Athena nodded her head.

Brendan watched her for just a bit, a tiny frown evident on his features. Soon, he shrugged his shoulders, clearly giving in. "Fine, fine," he said. "Up we go."

With his arms wrapped around Athena, he lifted himself to his feet. She wiggled around in his grasp just a bit, before relaxing. He stood still for just a bit, making sure he didn't forget anything important. Using a single hand to place his knit cap back on his head, he began to move forward, heading back toward the assumed direction of their home.


	11. Chapter 11

**WARNING: violence**

"You get tired _really_ easily," Brendan commented, his vision fixated onto the torchic in his arms.

She released a meek chirp in response. _He isn't wrong_.

Although it was only noon, and the two had left Brendan's home extremely late in the morning, she was already exhausted. She was hardly fit for walking for what felt like ages, to put it simply. She wasn't sure how Brendan managed to hardly ever get tired- it was as if his entire life was walking for days on end, just to exercise his legs.

 _That would make sense,_ Athena thought, her wings drooping.

Brendan simply sighed, bunching his shoulders together. After a moment of awkward silence, he placed the pokémon onto the grass beside him. Flapping her wings, she glanced up at him a tad curiously. He had begun to dig through his backpack silently and somewhat subconsciously, appearing to be on the search for a particular item. Sniffing, the fire type brought her gaze to the openings in the lush canopy above them.

The leaves from the trees helped shield the sky from her view, but after taking a few steps forward, she managed to catch a glimpse. To be frank, it wasn't too much. There were hardly any clouds left to wade endlessly through the dainty blue abyss. The only notable thing was that the sun was high above them.

 _I don't get how Brendan does it,_ Athena thought, wincing at the sound of her stomach gurgling. _He wakes up before me, and he still manages to have more energy!_

The sudden and close movement of Brendan's hand drew her away from the sky and toward the ground next to her. A small pile of corn was placed beside her. Feeling her stomach rumble once more, she leaned forward and began to eat the treats, savoring their sweet flavor.

"We should probably hurry," the human said, zipping up his neon backpack. Slinging the backpack over his shoulder, he looked aimlessly around. "We have a place to get to."

Athena looked up at him, a tad confused. _What place?_ she pondered, taking a small break from her meal. _He never told me that we had places to go to._ Usually when they went outside, they just wandered about without a certain destination. Was this a surprise of some sort?

Swallowing down the last bit the corn, the chick pokémon stood on her tiptoes. Almost instinctively, Brendan bent down and picked her up. Once he was safely secured in his arms, he began to move.

It seemed as if Brendan had no clue where he was going. Every now and then he paused, heaved a sigh as he meddled with his cap, before turning to either his left or his right. Sometimes he went straight.

 _Does he even know where he's going?_ Athena thought, shifting around uncomfortably. _I hope he doesn't get lost.._ With a feeble chirp, she looked around.

Not many trainers were in the area. In fact, the forest seemed hauntingly empty regarding humans. Granted, they hadn't seen many humans while trekking around for the past few days, but surely there was at least one nearby? Brendan didn't seem to care or even notice, possibly due to the fact that he held a dislike for trainer battles. Of course, Athena didn't mind- she held the same disliking toward the concept as her trainer.

Despite the lack of humans, there was certainly an abundance of pokémon. Not only could the songs of taillow and swellow alike could be heard, but many wurmples and poochyenas were scattered across the area. Truthfully, Athena had never seen a poochyena before, and she ended up squealing in fear when one approached them. Brendan, however, seemed indifferent, and continued on walking without any hesitation.

"Okay, just a few more minutes and we'll be there," Brendan mumbled, his pace quickening just a bit.

A mingle of excitement rose in Athena. She didn't know what to expect. She trusted Brendan enough to know that whatever they were walking to was something she wouldn't dislike too much.

 _He wouldn't get my hopes up for nothing, right?_

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to her, the two stopped at an open clearing with frilly, dark green grass. The terrain was mostly bare, with a few bushes and such, yet no trees were nearby. The stretch of empty land contained a small stream with quite a few large rocks bordering it. The rocks were wide enough to support several people.

"This is it," Brendan said, heading over to the rocks.

Athena didn't know what to think. _This is it?_ she mentally whined, her head drooping just a tad. _I was hoping for something more interesting.._ She had seen plenty of clearings before, and this one was hardly different from the rest.

Brendan proceeded to pause beside the array of rocks. Gently, he placed the torchic down right onto the stone, before plopping down right beside her. With both of his hands, he pried off his shoes and backpack, tossing them at the grass in front of them. After that, he turned around so he could face the babbling stream. A small smile was on his features as he tentatively placed his feet inside the crystal clear water. Athena simply crouched down, not wanting to intersect with the water in any way.

"My parents and I used to hang out here all of the time," Brendan softly began, a reminiscent look present on his face. His eyes were placed onto the pink flowers beyond the water. "Of course, since they work their lives away now, we don't do that as much. I tried to show May this place once, but she didn't feel like traveling so far just to see a small stream.. It means a lot to me, though." The chick pokémon nodded, absorbing in the information.

Pulling out a strange, gray accessory from his backpack, Brendan strapped it onto his left arm. "This was a birthday gift for my.. tenth birthday," he informed, showing her the peculiar contraption. She only blinked in response. "That was two years ago. It used to be my dad's, but he found no use for mega evolution, considering none of his pokémon can mega evolve." Athena cocked her head at an acute angle.

"This bracelet helps activate the whole thing," Brendan continued, fiddling with the stone in the center of the accessory. "I can't use it until I get a mega stone, but at least it looks cool. I probably won't use it, though. Blaziken- which is what you evolve into- can mega evolve and all, but I'm just not a big fan of the whole concept. I heard that it can really hurt pokémon once they transform back to their normal look. Probably because when they mega evolve, they don't feel as much pain as they would when normal. But once they're back to the way they were originally, all of that pain comes crashing back down on them."

Athena widened her eyes just a tad. _I could mega evolve one day?_ she thought. _I never knew that!_

Honestly, the entire subject of mega evolution was foreign to her, and it sounded quite confusing. However, before she could dwindle on the concept any longer, her trainer pulled out a bag full of sweets from his backpack. All of them looked quite tasty.

Pulling out a small yet plump, orange treat, he placed it down in front of the fire type. The treat wasn't as small as a poké block, but it wasn't much bigger than one, either. Taking a small bite of the treat, she emitted out a happy chirp after minimal hesitation.

 _It tastes delicious!_

The taste of the treat was rather tangy, yet it still managed to win her taste buds. It didn't take long for her to finish the treat, and once she did, she sat back, satisfied.

Despite the fact that she wasn't horribly hungry, another one was placed down in front of her, but this time it was a pink color. Finishing the treat in just a few bites, she heaved a sigh of relief, her feathers fluffing out slightly as a small wave of wind came swimming through the air.

"Here," Brendan murmured, placing his hat on top of the torchic, "that might block some of the wind."

 _It's pretty comfy,_ she mentally commented, _and warm._

The white cap was a little too large for her- it mostly covered her entire frame, yet managed to at least stay on and block most of the wind, like he said. Softly smiling, Brendan lifted his feet out of the water and onto the rock, reaching down behind him to grab his shoes. After the accessories were placed on his feet, he glanced at the pokémon. "We should probably head-"

A loud and deafening noise sounded from the distance, interrupting him. In response, a chorus of shrill screams erupted through the air. However, the screams quickly died out. Freezing, Brendan turned around, a puzzled expression on his face as he stared at the empty land in front of him. "What was that..?" he mumbled, glancing back at the fire type, as if he was expecting a reply.

 _I don't know!_ she protested, inching closer to his side.

Brendan was ready to take a few steps forward, when suddenly a blindingly purple light bright shot through the atmosphere. A deafening sound echoed throughout the air as a large, purple beam came crashing toward their direction. The strand of light was far away, but it began to gain speed as it tore across acres of trees and wildlife.

"Run!" Brendan yelled at Athena, who stood there in slight horror.

At the empty reaction, he picked her up and tossed her ahead of him. Landing onto the grassy ground with a squeak, she scrambled to her feet and scurried away, adrenaline coursing through her small frame. Thanks to speed boost, her speed began to consistently increase as she continued.

 _Wait-_

Skidding to a halt, she rapidly turned around and gasped as she watched the beam gain speed on her trainer, who was running as fast as his legs could carry him.

"No, _no_!" she hastily cried, blindly dashing forward.

The sound of the beam was even louder now. Behind the chemicals that made up the beam was a dirt path of destruction. Where the trees and bushes once stood laid nothing but a brown and ashy path.

The hat began to slide off of the torchic's head, and she soon tripped over her own feet. A strange figure appeared in front of her, gripping her tightly as it jerked to a halt. A semi-translucent pink dome formed around the two, and an eerie silence filled the air.

A blurry silhouette of Brendan was sprinting closer and closer to the dome, but it was too late.

The beam engulfed him.

Blood splattered onto the outside walls of the shield.

Athena stayed in a stunned silence as the beam roared across the dome and away, eating up the rest of the clearing.

 _No.._

Disbelief crackled inside her tiny frame, yet the dark red blood of Brendan was sliding down the front of the pink dome, signaling that he was forever gone. As if on cue, the cap that laid on top of her floated down onto the grassy terrain.

" _Brendan!_ "


	12. Chapter 12

With her eyes fluttering open, Athena released a dainty cough of sorts, her eyes drooping from weariness. Her memories were scattered all over the place, and as she sat there, she attempted to desperately recollect all of them in the right order. When her vision finally adjusted to the darkness, she looked up.

No longer was she in the grassy field with her trainer. The land around her was dark and gloomy. The floor and walls were nothing but stone, with heaps of moss piling onto them. A wide entrance sat near the northern part of the area, allowing light to inch its way into the darkness. Despite it being the summertime, the air was a little chilly.

 _I'm in a cave,_ she noted, _but why..?_ After a few moments of pondering, it hit her. _Oh.. Right._

Shuffling around, she fluffed out her feathers, continuing to look around. Two circular berries were placed beside her, and as she shifted around, she couldn't help but feel the soft knitting of Brendan's cap. Letting out a small chirp, she lifted the cap onto her onto her frame.

After the traumatizing events of the day prior, the strange creature scooped up the cap and carried the weeping chick pokémon over to a cave. After rudely dropping her onto the stone floor, he flew off to the trees that surrounded this cave, leaving her alone. It was hard to sleep that night, but she had only just managed to do so.

 _I miss Brendan,_ she thought, drowsily shifting around once more. _I wish this was a dream.._

She could feel her body trembling from sudden loneliness as she thought back to the large, purple beam from the day prior.

 _What caused that?_ she thought, tears on the edge of her eyes. They stung her cheek. _And why?_

As if on cue, she couldn't help but notice a large shadow drop upon her. Slowly bringing her vision upward, she allowed her beak to gape open, staring at the same large creature from yesterday. She was hardly capable of distinguishing his appearance due to the lack of light in the cave.

"You've finally woken up," he drawled, his tone laced with evident disappointment. Reaching forward with his ovular claws, he prodded the fire type, scratching her just a bit. "You're a bit more scrawny than I thought.. Such a shame."

Letting out a meek chirp, the torchic shied away from him. _Scrawny? What else would you expect?_

The creature retracted his claws, staring at the shadows she hid in before turning around and flying away, mumbling something under his breath. Relaxing just a tad, the chick pokémon fixated her attention onto the berries just a few steps away from her.

"I am a latios, a dragon-and-psychic type that is considered a descendant of Rayquaza," the creature grunted, staring out the entrance of the cave. Athena blankly stared at him.

 _What is a rayquaza?_ she pondered. _I've never heard of that before._

Taking quite a few steps forward, she continued staring up at the male, taking in his appearance silently. Since he was now in the light, he was much easier to study. He appeared to be strong and sturdy, with a broad, blue head that ended in a point. His large wings also ended in a point, with a singular spike sticking out of the upper side on each of them. His white and blue feathers seemed to stick out all along his back, giving him some sort of a royalty look.

"Tell me," he began, glancing down at the chick pokémon with amber irises, "have you heard of the legendaries of Hoenn?" Athena hesitated, flinching slightly at the angered expression he held. Desperately, she searched through her mind, not wanting to anger him even more.

"I've heard of Groudon," she meekly responded, shuffling her feet around silently and quite awkwardly. Only knowing about one legendary suddenly made her feel very uneducated about the region she lived in. The latios seemed to have clicked his tongue in response, before narrowing his eyes. _Please don't be mad.._

"You ignorant fire types are so incompetent of any legendary other than Groudon," he suddenly hissed, his voice bouncing off the walls in the chilly cave as he tore his expression off of the chick pokémon. "Groudon is only a mere peasant compared to the mighty Rayquaza." Once again, the torchic was lost due to the amount of large words. She did know, however, that the latios sounded rather angry at her for not knowing about Rayquaza.

The male continued onward, "Rayquaza is a sky god. He controls the heavens and the ozone layer, which protects Earth from many catastrophes. He is a mighty dragon that should be adored by pokémon of all kinds."

Athena sucked in all of the information in her head, but the large amount of words- which were rather big for her- was very dumbfounding. _What even is an ozone layer?_

Blinking her beady eyes, she shifted around while flapping her wings, feeling the knit of her trainer's cap as it rubbed against her cranium. A wave of mourning washed over her.

 _I wish Brendan was here,_ she thought. _He's so much nicer than this guy._

"You must miss your trainer," the latios suddenly observed with an icy tone, glaring down at her. She simply looked up at him, a little taken aback by the rude expression she held. He only blinked, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Pity. Trainers are nothing but a waste of space. You're better off without them."

The chick pokémon flinched, her beak slightly gaping open at the rude words he spat out. "B-But.." she began, but she quickly shut her beak after receiving a stern glance from the male. Fluffing out her feathers, she stared out of the entrance of the cave as well. "Brendan. His name was Brendan."

The latios grunted. "Does it look like I care?" he grumbled, flapping his jet-like wings. "But since the topic of names has been mentioned, I'm Lucas." He then glanced down at the torchic, expecting a reply. She returned the glance silently, before jumping slightly as she realized what he wanted.

"Athena," she chirped, a little half-heartedly.

Lucas nodded, fixating his vision onto the accumulating dark clouds outside of the cavern. She followed his eyes. A storm was brewing; thunder and lightning would eventually roar across the sky. Wind blew across the land, causing the leaves that occupied the trees to dance around slowly and almost effortlessly.

 _Not another storm!_ Athena mentally protested, taking a single step back.

With a swift flap of his large, blue wings, Lucas darted outside, retracting his claws from his sides. The fire type watched as he rocketed toward the sky, zooming out of view. With a sniff, she stood still, before retreating back to her dark corner of the cave. As she nestled down, she couldn't help but think of what happened to her trainer. The large purple beam that fell from the sky ended his life quickly and abruptly; in no way did he die peacefully.

 _If Lucas had never shown up,_ she began, _would I have been killed, too?_ She shuddered at the thought. _I don't like him, but I guess I am grateful.._

Tilting her head forward, she allowed the hat to scoot down a bit to cover the upper rim of her eyes. Another wave of mourning washed over her. She had first lost her family, and now Brendan. Hadn't she suffered enough? Closing her eyes, she emitted a few mournful chirps, nestling her chin against her chest feathers.

In just a few, short moments, the dragon-and-psychic type returned, a bundle of berries held in his claws. Floating up to the weeping torchic, he curtly dropped the small heap of berries beside her, eyes narrowing in frustration.

"Please stop crying over that kid," he growled, flexing his claws at a rapid pace. The fire type lifted her head, staring up at him silently. "He's dead. He isn't coming back. Now eat the berries."

Those words stung. Without saying anything, the chick pokémon obliged to the orders from the latios, bending down to scoop up the berries in her beak and swallow them. The sweet taste of oran berries entered her mouth, and for the first time that day, she felt a slight pang of hunger. After finishing the rest of the berries, she crouched down and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

It was almost nighttime when she woke back up. Still crouched down, she raked her vision over the surrounding vicinity, her eyelids still drooping just a tad. For the rest of the night she remained that way, sulking to herself in the dark corner, every now and then fiddling with the position of Brendan's cap or surveying the premises that surrounded her. Lucas had apparently left the cave, for he was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't until around midnight when he returned, with the small fire type still wide awake.

"I'm back," he growled curtly, dropping a few red berries on the floor. Athena felt her beak began to water as the soothing scent of the berries wafted in her nostrils. "Eat the cheri berries, then sleep," he grumpily ordered, showing no sign of kindness in his tone. The torchic didn't answer him; instead, she scrambled over to the pile of berries, scooped up one in her mouth, and scurried back to her small corner.

A loud and threatening clap of thunder sounded outside, and not soon after did rain began to pour down from the heavens. _Luckily I'm in here,_ the chick pokémon thought to herself, quickly swallowing down the berry. She heard a husky sigh from Lucas, but she decided not to pay attention to him.

"It will probably rain until morning," he informed her. Glancing upward, she noticed that he was once again staring out of the entrance of the cave. "Tomorrow we will wake up early and begin training."

 _Training?_ she thought, tilting her head. _Why?_

Fixing Brendan's hat so it covered most of her frame, the torchic began to tentatively preen her bright orange feathers. As Lucas settled down by the cave entrance, she started to ponder why her life had been cursed to be the way it was. She had a father and a brother, who were both brutally killed. Then she had a caring trainer, who was engulfed by a purple beam.

 _It'll get better,_ Athena thought, glaring at the latios coldly. _It has to._


End file.
